The increasing incidences of social and political violence in Palestine calls for the establishment of psychological support programs to support those affected, especially children. Children are particularly vulnerable in the face of psychological crises, and therefore working with them requires special attention and care. Wings of Hope for trauma felt it necessary to create psychosocial support programs for children’s groups that align with the policy of the organization in alleviating the psychological and social problems that these children suffer from as a result of these difficult circumstances.
The target group of these social support groups are children with trauma related symptoms ranging in age from 10 to 13 years old. The goals of this program are to educate children about their trauma related symptoms, to provide them with positive coping strategies to help them deal with their symptoms, to educate their parents about trauma related symptoms in their children, to provide the parents with positive parenting styles to help deal with these symptoms, to work with children through group sessions aimed at psychological and emotional expression and the improvement of their social behavior, and to help children develop personal skills by tackling various topics related to this age group.
Some of the interventions used to achieve the objectives of the program include: educational awareness sessions on psycho-trauma and its symptoms for children and parents, group activities of a therapeutic nature such as imagination and relaxation exercises, role-playing, and the use of art and music as a form of expression, and awareness sessions related to topics including time management, healthy communication skills, confidence building, adolescence, etc.