White Orange Youth

Description of the Project

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Targeting the children who are more vulnerable and need mental support, we provide psychotherapy, group activities, community meetings and home visits. We also have been lobbying the government officials for children mental issue.

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Most organizations and government mainly focus on providing material needs to poor children and ignore the inner needs. Lots of orphans and kids from single families are mentally vulnerable and could become mental illness if they are not attentively taken care of. We consider this is the core problem of their growth. To let them grow up happily as other kids do, we provide different activities to help them to adjust themselves and to adapt to the society.

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Objectives

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The objective is to heal internal wounds of the children and to built resilience.

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Activities

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(1) Formation of psychosocial children club

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In this psychosocial children club, we had several activities including :

• The development of hero books (this tool helps counselor to understand better the children). By talking about the heros, happy or sad memories and the goals they want to achieve, children can review their thoughts and build their confidence.

• The children had the opportunity to express their feelings, history and future through pictures that they themselves drew.

The children met once a week and learned about HIV/AIDS education, human rights, sexual reproductive education, life skills and computer skills. Activities included group practice and individual counselling. 

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In the context of the psychosocial children club, we went to visit their home with a counselor in order to provide necessary counselling services if needed.

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(2) Lobby and advocacy meetings

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The goal was to introduce the psychosocial support and care concept to the government officials so that they can see the importance of integrate the psychosocial support and care concept to the ongoing programs. We had several meetings with heads of the following departments:

• Financial and planning department

• Social welfare department

• Community development department

• Education department

• Political leaders

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(3) Community activities​

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To bring the awareness of children psychosocial issue in remote areas, we invited a professional drama group to artfully articulate it and engage villagers' attention. Performers also encouraged audience to look at this topic in other perspective and sparked an open dialogue in public.

 

(4) Stakeholders meeting​

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Around 30 participants which include parents, local NGOs and psychotherapy experts gathered to discuss how we can provide a better future for these children.

 

Impact

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More than 90 kids had benefited from this program. Those participated children have successfully build resilience and confidence. They have become happier and are able to express their feelings. In many cases the communication between caregivers and children has improved. Youth are also more aware of children rights and know how to protect themselves.

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