Posted on 3/6/2024

Supporting children’s mental health through play

Fondation Dora is supporting Swiss humanitarian organisation Medair (www.medair.org) in its efforts to create playgrounds and sports programmes for children living in displaced people camps in Yemen in order to improve their mental health and well-being.

Conflict-torn Yemen is considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, with an estimated 18.2m people reliant on humanitarian aid, more than half of them children, and 4.5m displaced people living in camps. Many children and pregnant women are malnourished, while mental health problems are widespread.

Since 2021, Medair has been operating in the displaced people camps of Al Mesqaffa and Othera 2, in the southern Tuban district, to provide psychological support to children living there. One way in which to do this is to give children the necessary safe space and equipment with which to play, an activity known to benefit children’s cognitive development, especially for those who have suffered from malnutrition.

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For babies and children up to the age of six, Medair is creating and improving play areas in the two camps and at a health centre in Khod Bihan. New play mats, games and creative resources have been provided, while nine local people have been trained as supervisors, with the aim of supporting learning objectives and facilitating social interaction between the children and their family members. 

To date, the project has seen considerable success. Since November 2023, the three play areas have welcomed 914 children and 356 mothers, higher numbers than predicted, with twice as many girls using the facilities as expected.

Meanwhile, for children aged 7-13, Medair is developing a psychosocial activity programme based around sport, which is known to support mental health and help resolve problems common in refugee camps relating to social cohesion, inclusion and resilience. Consulting with the children and adult inhabitants of the two camps, Medair aims to provide equipment and recruit facilitators in order to establish a long-lasting programme to benefit future generations of children.

Founded in 1989, Medair works to reduce human suffering in some of the most remote places of the most vulnerable countries in the world.