This project will provide a 7-day Summer Camp for 50 children affected by conflict in close-to-border areas in the shores of Lake Sevan in Armenia. The project will improve the social-emotional wellbeing of children through Mental Health and Psychosocial support activities (art therapy, yoga, swimming, team-building games, etc), empower them with life skills and give them tools to improve their communities. Upon return children will implement mini-projects in their villages.
Children in close-to-border areas are in constant stress since September 2020 when the war took the lives of 5000 Armenians. The military positions of Azerbaijan got very close to the villages, and occasionally shellings of the villages and border skirmishes happen. Children are having a hard time to get used to these constant threats of security and need access to recreational and mental health and psychosocial support activities. They need meaningful participation in the lives of communities.
50 children from most vulnerable families in remote villages will spent 7 days in the shores of lake Sevan. They will do mental health and PSS activities, yoga, dancing, swimming to reduce stress and improve their resilience, as well as life skills (problem solving, effective communication, creative thinking, etc.). They will learn about emergency first aid and mine awareness, lifesaving for their context. They will learn how to design small projects to improve the lives of their communities.
The project will have long term impact on the children and on the communities at large. Children with improved emotional wellbeing are more likely to perform well at school, be more resilient to stress in the future and less likely to develop risky behaviours. Engaged youth are an asset to their community. With the skills learned in the camp they will be supported to improve their villages through mini projects such as cleanups, tree plantings, establishment of youth clubs among others.
