Support youth's mental health-social reintegration

Hi GlobalGiving team and donors!

We are delighted to be sharing with you the first report of the project: Youth Reintegration Into Society: A Community-based Approach Towards Mental Health

This project provides a novel community-based narrative approach to psychosocial care, trauma and reintegration that would help children and young people (CYP) at risk of joining gang and formerly associated with armed groups to gain access to the resources and skills they need to deal with a variety of traumatic situations and stigmas.The purpose of this project is that CYP enhance positive bonds within the community and change situations of vulnerability and criminality through the use of narratives of resilience, creating protective and healing environments.

286 young people participated as direct beneficiaries and 110 were indirect beneficiaries. Likewise 151 families and carers particiated in the activities. This was in three different cities of Colombia: Bogotá, Restrepo and Villavicencio. During the last six months some activities can be hightlighted: 

Leaving home: In this activity, young people from both Bogotá and Meta reviewed their experiences in relation to the reasons and implications they had when they left their homes. A first meeting was held in which the some questions were raised and discussed: What memories do they have regarding the day they left their homes? What feelings did they have? Through the questions the participants captured their experiences in an artistic work.

The material they created was especially focused on what they found after leaving home, some spoke of a sense of belonging to the armed group they were part of, power, money, death and combat, however, those narratives They were accompanied by reflections on what their findings were within the group, such as disappointments, sacrifices, the emotional implications of living in combat, far from their families and constant uncertainty and "with death attached to their backs".

The inner child: This activity aimed for the young people of Bogotá and Meta to connect with their inner child, recognizing their greatest joys, but at the same time their pains and fears and how these have influenced their current moment.The meeting began with the connection and awareness through a text, which carried out a short meditation. They went through different feelings and connecting from these, significant situations, then through organic materials such as clay and elements of nature, each one recreated what was experienced during meditation. In the end, each one connected what they experienced during the entire session, showing their work and recounting the findings from the creative process.

We're very grateful of all the donations that have been directed to this project. Your support will be helping the lives of countless children in Colombia, and for that, we cannot thank you enough.