Psychological Support & Trauma Recovery

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you for standing with the children and families of Aida and Al-Azza refugee camps and the wider Bethlehem area. This has been one of the hardest years our community has known. Since the escalation of the war in late 2023, families here have carried heavy psychological burdens — anxiety, stress, and trauma — while facing rising unemployment, delayed salaries, and disrupted services. Amid all of this, your support helped Noor Society keep a door open for those who needed a safe space to cope and heal.

What your support made possible

Across our psychological support and trauma-recovery work this cycle, we reached families through several complementary streams:

• Through 18 school-based psychological support sessions, we reached 2,160 students in grades 8 and 9 in Aida's schools — helping young people process stress and build coping skills at an age when early support matters most.
• 92 mothers and caregivers took part in 576 psychological support and mental-health sessions, easing the emotional weight carried by those who care for children with disabilities day and night.
• 40 children and families received emergency psychological support during periods of heightened distress, delivered by social workers and psychologists.
• 75 mothers joined psychological-support needs-assessment days, helping us identify who needed deeper follow-up.
• 34 mothers of children with disabilities took part in psychosocial support and health-education sessions, delivered in partnership with Secours Islamique France.
• 300 mothers participated in awareness sessions on protection from violence and abuse.
• 50 children and adolescents took part in art and music therapy workshops — creative spaces that help children express fear and rebuild a sense of safety.

We delivered this work in close partnership with the Palestinian Counseling Center, Secours Islamique France, the Union of Social Workers & Psychologists, volunteer specialists, and university trainees — a network that allowed us to keep serving even when resources were stretched.

Challenges we are navigating

We are honest with our supporters: financial pressures meant our dedicated in-house psychologist and social worker positions had to be temporarily frozen this cycle. We bridged that gap through committed partners and volunteers, but the need for sustained, in-house psychosocial staff continues to outpace our resources — and demand keeps rising as more families seek help.

What comes next

With continued support, our priority is to restore dedicated psychosocial staffing and expand trauma-focused sessions for children, so that no family faces this period alone. Every contribution helps us reach more children before early distress becomes a lasting wound.

With gratitude

On behalf of every child and family you have helped, thank you. Your solidarity reminds our community that they are not forgotten.