Headwaters Relief Organization will produce a children's book as part of a mental health program for vulnerable children living in refugee settlements in Greece. With our teams of mental health volunteers and connections with caregivers and partners on the ground, the book will provide as many as 10,000 children with the tools to cope following trauma, helping them to build resiliency.
Since 2015, more than 1.2 million people have crossed into Europe from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and other countries. Among these refugees are some 600,000 children and young people under the age of 18 who have experienced unspeakable trauma-from witnessing the execution of a parent to girls having acid thrown in their faces because they wanted to go to school. In addition, they have been forced to leave their homes and communities, and face an uncertain future.
To address the trauma that these children have experienced, Headwaters Relief Organization will provide a mental health program that will help them gain strength and resilience. Utilizing the mental health expertise in disasters of our volunteer teams of psychologists, social workers and family counselors, the objective of this program is to support the development of problem-solving skills and resiliency through the production of a children's book and caregiver's guide.
Helping children process the trauma they've experienced due to persecution, violence and loss is an important part of helping them build resiliency. The books will help them with constructive learning about the process of healing, growth and problem-solving. The skills they will learn and the insights they will gain will be particularly meaningful as they face an uncertain future.
This project has provided additional documentation in a XLSX file (projdoc.xlsx).
