Louisa Waugh reports on help for distressed children affected by the conflict as they try to put their lives back together again.

Palestinian families across the Gaza Strip are still reeling from the aftermath of the recent conflict, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including over 400 children. Israel says it launched the offensive in response to rockets being continually fired towards southern Israel from Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip. International and Palestinian human rights organisations report that the overwhelming majority of victims were civilians.

Thousands of Gazan families are now facing poverty because their homes and places of work have been destroyed. Over 4,000 homes were completely destroyed and over 11,500 badly damaged during the conflict, especially in the border areas of northern Gaza. Many families are now staying with relatives, or living in tents erected by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main UN agency working inside Gaza.

UNRWA supplies humanitarian assistance to one million refugees across the Gaza Strip. But many adults and children also need ongoing psychological support in the aftermath of the conflict. The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, which provides mental health services to adults and children across the Gaza Strip, estimates that up to half of children in Gaza, around 350,000, will suffer some form of post traumatic stress as a result of their experiences during the offensive. A number of local Palestinian NGOs are focusing their efforts on supporting children who have been distressed by their recent experiences.

Sixteen-year-old Senah, from Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, lost five members of her family, including her father, her elder sister and her two younger brothers, when her home was shelled by the Israeli military on 3 January, 2009. Senah witnessed the shelling, which completely destroyed her home, and was too frightened to leave her family and go back to school after the ceasefire on 18 January.

“Senah was scared she would lose the rest of her family while she was out at school”, says local community worker Ismail Dalmaily, who has supported Senah ever since the January ceasefire. Ismail Dalmaily works with the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management (CTCCM), a Palestinian NGO that offers psycho-social support to children across Gaza, and is now supporting hundreds of distressed children and their families, especially those who live in and around the border areas. CTCCM works in schools and local community centres. Its work is financially supported by a British NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

“In Gaza, children are facing enormous psychological traumas as a direct result of the Israeli offensive”, says Andrea Becker, head of advocacy at MAP, which has been supporting health projects in the Gaza Strip for almost 20 years. “We are supporting local NGOs to support these children, as they attempt to rebuild their shattered lives.” Senah attends three CTCCM sessions a week, including personal support, group sessions and psycho-drama. She says the sessions “make a difference”, and is now back at school full time.

In Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, another local NGO has been supporting local children for almost two decades. The Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) was founded in 1991 by a group of local Palestinians, including Majeda al-Saqqa, who is a community worker at the association. “We do a whole range of activities with children, like expressive art, drama and sports” she says. “A lot of our work now is with children who live in the border areas of Gaza. Many of them are severely traumatized, and displaying symptoms of stress, depression and aggression – and also physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches and nausea.”

CFTA now supports around 500 Gazan children a day. The association also employs a team of outreach workers, but cannot now cope with the demand for its services, which surged immediately after the ceasefire. “We work long term with the children” says Majeda. “We do follow-up with their families and schools - and we see the difference in their behaviours and feelings. Many of them become less aggressive, more integrated into their families and schools, and their physical symptoms disappear.”

During the conflict, schools across Gaza were closed, or converted into shelters for people who had nowhere else to go. Children were kept at home for their own safety, and Majeda says many children are now afraid to be alone. As well as supporting their psychological health, CFTA also encourages the children to have fun, taking them on trips to the coast, where they can run and play, and simply enjoy being children. Another local initiative, Give Gaza, dispatches teams of adults dressed as kangaroos to play with children and encourage them to laugh and relax.

Humanitarian assistance is now trickling into the Gaza Strip and there is a frail semblance of normality, as families attempt to rebuild their lives, and their homes, and move on from the events of the recent conflict. But thousands of families are coping with the violent deaths of people they loved. They are physically and mentally exhausted, and also nervous about what will happen next.

As Israel and Hamas struggle to agree terms for a lasting ceasefire, the borders remain effectively closed, and life inside Gaza continues to be fraught with uncertainty. These local psycho-social support projects offer a lifeline for thousands of Palestinian children who are continuing to live on the edge.

Meeting needs in Gaza

“I have been horrified at the scale of human suffering that I have witnessed for myself… we must provide more than just basic humanitarian support if we are to help rebuild people’s lives.”

Douglas Alexander, UK Secretary of State for International Development, visited Gaza in March and announced that £30m was being made available to help kick-start a recovery. This pledge brings the UK response to the recent conflict to nearly £47m. DFID has been supporting the Palestinian people for over 15 years. UK aid has been helping the Palestinians prepare for statehood and supporting the desperately needed peace process.

See www.dfid.gov.uk for more details of DFID’s programme and updates on the response to the Gaza crisis.