Syria: Healing Childhood Trauma Through Play

A children’s centre in Idlib province is giving young people a much-needed respite from conflict as well as the chance to catch up on their interrupted education.

At Sanafer Mazaya, part of a woman’s centre in Kfar Nabel, some 130 children gather daily to play and learn basic literacy and numeracy skills.

“The idea behind this centre came about because we had quite a few children accompanying their mothers to their training sessions at the Mazaya Women’s Centre,” explained Faten, the children’s centre director. “It was a big surprise when such a large number of children aged between three and five began flocking to the centre in such a short space of time.”

Teachers managed to set the centre up very rapidly and with few resources. It now employs six adults, some in teaching positions and others who care for children and clean the centre.

Faten, who has a vocational qualification in counselling, said the staff tried to counteract the trauma of war through play as well as by teaching values and good manners.

The children have access to toys including plastic balls, coloured building blocks and pogo sticks, and experts are on hand to diagnose children with hyperactivity disorders or problems with violence.

They also coordinate between parents and educators in order to curb any antisocial behaviour.

Raed al-Fares, head of Idlib’s Union of Revolutionary Bureaus, a civil society grouping which funds children’s centres in the province, said that the aim was to monitor both the children’s educational development and their psychological state.

Other children’s centres in Kfar Nabel include Katakit, Alwan, Shakhabit, Baraem and Farashat.

To try to address the impact of Syria’s deteriorating academic system, Fares said the centres “provide short workshops to develop children’s literacy in all the sciences, providing natural foundations to enable them to continue their education afterwards.

“On the other hand, they also instil discipline in the children at a time when they have been away from the classroom for some time,” he continued. “And they give the children a refuge from the streets, which have become danger zones for them in the conditions of war.”

Fares said his department hoped to open further centres in Hass, Marat al-Numan and other towns.

Demand for places at the centre is growing.

“We have at least two children a day applying for registration,” said Shahd, a teacher at Sanafer Mazaya, “whether their mothers are attending training sessions at the women’s centre or not. The number of children whose mothers are not attending sessions has more than doubled.”

Many children from families displaced by the fighting attend the centre.

Umm Nur, originally from Khan Shaykhun in the south of Idlib province, said she was “very happy to learn that there was a centre for children’s education and entertainment in the city. I didn’t have a moment’s hesitation about bringing my daughter here.”

“I heard that the children really enjoyed coming to the Sanafer Mazaya Centre, and that they felt happy here,” added Umm Hussein, displaced from Kernaz, a village in northern Syria. “I brought my child here in order to take advantage of the learning and entertainment on offer.”

Parents say their children are blossoming in the care of Sanafer Mazaya.

Umm Mohammad has an only child, and says, “I was initially hesitant to send him here but now I’m very comfortable with it, because my child is happy and loves it here.”

Her son Mohammad used to be very restless and hard to discipline, but his father said he hoped the centre would help turn this surplus energy into something positive.

Another mother, Umm Asma, said that her daughter was “so happy to get to the centre that she wakes up early every morning, which is quite unlike her”.

Despite these success stories, Faten admitted that it was a struggle.

“There are some negatives, above all our lack of resources and in some cases, uncooperative parents,” she said. “But there are so many positives, like how the children love the centre, and how they absorb everything that’s offered to them, as well as the love and sense of cooperation that emerges between the children, fostered through play. There are many cases where children have visibly changed for the better.”

This story was produced by Syria Stories (previously Damascus Bureau), IWPR’s news platform for Syrian journalists.