From Gaza to Kyiv...because children's relationship to war is deeper than you might think

On the afternoon of July 24, 2014, south of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, and in one of the rounds of attacks that the occupation army began on the Strip that month, one of its planes targeted a house in which about ten families had taken shelter. They call each other to make sure they survived, before everyone rushes with their children to escape the fatal blow, crying out for help and the sound of ambulances.

The cameras caught the children's faces stunned, mouths wide open, but while some of them managed to scream or cry, others remained silent forever.

In contrast to the injuries on the body that everyone sees, others are hidden and almost invisible, they are not the color of blood, and they are not saved by white bandages or splints.

As in the case of sensory injuries, children also remain the most vulnerable and vulnerable to these hidden psychological injuries. What they witness, watch or read about during wars exceeds their ability to understand, endure, resist, or even heal.

Their mouths are silent, their hands speak

From birth, children begin to explore their surroundings, and as they grow, they use drawing tools to scatter their scribbles and drawings on paper, walls, or wherever they have the opportunity. Little by little, these drawings carry some of their ideas and enable them to express their feelings and emotions.

They draw to express their fears, love, or happiness, and they use drawing as language to describe their feelings that are difficult to describe in words, and drawings help them to depict their surroundings, the relationship between things and people around them, as well as in translating and illustrating the information they are exposed to and experiences, and even expression About their reaction to what is happening around them, their opinions of it, and their needs (1).

The war in particular, with its negative effects and painful scenes, represents an experience that is difficult for children to talk about, so they resort to drawing as a last resort to express what they lived through during this experience, and its impact on them, and the psychological harm it caused them, in addition to expressing their opinion on the event itself. And this is what prompts researchers and specialists to study and analyze the drawings of children who survived wars to understand all of this, and to help them mitigate the effects of psychological warfare, and determine the best means for treating and supporting them (2).

In this context, a group of researchers in different academic institutions such as: Bahcesehir University in Turkey, New York University, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the University of Jordan tried ), a collection and analysis of drawings of children exposed to war in different regions of the Arab world, we review them in two main groups.

In the first group, a group of researchers headed towards the Islah camp in southeastern Turkey, near the city of Gaziantep, where more than half of the camp’s residents are children aged between 9-18 years who fled and their families from Syria and settled in the camp. The researchers tried to ask the children about the war, and there some of them tried to speak their language (drawing) to describe what they experienced, here the group presents some of their conversations (3).

Drawing for a 10 year old kid

Drawing for a 13-year-old boy

Drawing for a 12-year-old boy

Drawing of a 15-year-old girl

Drawing for a 12-year-old boy

Drawing of a 14-year-old girl

Some of the drawings in this group show an association with the war through symbols such as planes, the color of blood, or bodies lying on the ground, but the first and second images are different and difficult to understand, and the researchers who collected these drawings indicated that they contain references to the feelings of the two children who drew the images This is shown by the appearance of the teeth, the deletion of the hands (the first image), and the shading of the face and body (the second image).

In the end, the drawings that the children in this group participated in were divided into drawings showing tools of war such as weapons, soldiers and bombs, drawings showing symbols of war as flags, drawings showing war activities such as shooting, drawings depicting the consequences of war as death or injury, and drawings depicting feelings such as people crying. These drawings and their analysis in a research entitled "Study of Syrian refugee children in Turkey." It was used to analyze the impact of the war on the children included in the study. It showed that more than half of them had critical symptoms of depression, and symptoms of shock, and that each child had two or more psychological problems. .

As for the second group, it reviews what researchers collected from drawings of children aged 4-12 years in a refugee camp that included families who fled from Iraq to Jordan. Iraqi refugees in Jordan?

The families of these children fled Iraq after the “Islamic State” took control of the city of “Bakhdida”, so it is noticeable in some of these drawings features of this organization, such as the slogan “There is no god but God.”

The drawing of a 12-year-old boy.

: churches and homes burned, innocents died, blood was splattered.

: "We heard that they killed a mother and her two children...they are covered in blood here."

Drawing of an 8-year-old

The participants in the war are divided into two teams on each side, with each team's flag illustrated;

The Iraqi flag and the ISIS flag.

"I drew a tank for ISIS fighters to blow up our house."

Drawing of a 4-year-old girl

The child depicts a woman lying on the ground next to her children, all dead and covered in blood.

The drawing of an 11-year-old girl.

shooting at a house and a church, killing of innocent children, car bombs, black skies, grief, ISIS fighters.

Drawing for a 10 year old kid

How do we define war for our children?

You may now have many questions about children's drawings and how you can understand your child's language or protect him from what is going on around him or away from him, especially with the continued exposure of children to images and scenes of war, whether through live or remote experience.

So, in Meydan, we tried to get answers to the most important of these questions from its reliable and specialized sources, and we discussed them with Dr. Hassan Nasser, a consultant psychiatrist, and the first thing we started with our questions in this context was about how we can introduce our children to war.

Nasser believes that it is impossible to isolate children from the events of the war around them or in the world, whether they are experiencing it or knowing about it from school or the Internet, especially with their easy access to social media, or the possibility that they discover what is happening through their friends or teachers, so we asked him about How to explain the events of war to children and the best way to deal with them in this case. Present these tips as useful tips to help parents discuss what is happening with their children.

First, parents should avoid lying or concealing basic information about the war, so that children can trust their parents and to ensure that trust continues.

In this context, adults should show openness and interest in discussing the topic with the child, and not ignoring or avoiding talking about these topics with him.

What should be told to the child depends on his age, what he may already know about the conflict, and how much anxiety he feels about it.

Start with the first step, which is to explore what the child already knows about the topic, where he got his information from, and whether the sources he follows are reliable or not, for example if social media is the source, it is necessary to clarify that things published online are not always true .

In addition, adults should adjust their answers to the child's questions about the war based on the child's age. It may be helpful to use examples from the child's daily life, for example: a story the child has read, a video game the child has watched, a game involving two people in conflict, or simply two animals Eleven watched them fight. These examples give the child an idea of ​​the nature of the conflict and keep him feeling safe, because what he has read or seen has not affected his life.

The child should also be encouraged to share his feelings about the situation, especially if he has seen pictures or videos of war. If he is anxious, adults should appreciate and verify these feelings and acknowledge that the situation is confusing.

Phrases that show understanding and empathy for children are very useful for normalizing their feelings. For example, you can say: “It may be scary to hear about war. It is normal to feel anxious in such circumstances. Anyone would be afraid after seeing these pictures, but we will get through that together.” ".

It is very necessary to work to reassure the child that he is safe, and to enhance his sense of safety by developing plans to promote a sense of normalcy such as: “Tomorrow after school we will go to your grandmother’s increase, and on the weekend we will go to your favorite restaurant”, and for children who live in an area In war, they need more reassurance that adults will always be on their side.

Therefore, constant communication, checking their feelings daily, and doing deep breathing exercises are highly recommended steps for controlling children's emotions.

In the end, Nasser explained that children use different ways to express their feelings about the war, and their reactions to what is happening in it, and that these methods are divided into two types, the first type is known as constructive or useful ways for the child, such as writing and drawing, it helps him to talk about the event or describe it Therefore, it is a safe way for him to express the painful situations and memories he carries, and in addition to writing and drawing, talking can help the child communicate with those around him, and here the type and style of speaking with the child will vary based on his age and the method used when communicating with him, and to help the child to talk About his feelings, you can tell him a story about a difficult event, and then ask him about the story and its events, such as asking him what he thinks will be the end of the story, or how the characters in the story feel, or what he would do if he was one of these characters.

As for the other type, they are negative ways, such as the child’s behavior showing his feeling of distress, or showing him some behaviors such as involuntary urination, thumb sucking, refusing to go to school, clinging to one or both parents or caregiver, or hyperactivity and causing problems At school or in the community, a child may prefer to be alone and become less interested in activities he used to enjoy, have trouble sleeping and lose focus, or have frequent physical complaints such as headaches and abdominal pain for no apparent reason.

Well, one child out of every 6 children around the world witnesses wars and armed conflicts. In 2019 alone, the number of children living in war zones reached 426 million. As for our Arab region and the Middle East, two out of every 5 children live in war zones. This means that learning to heal children who are experiencing these tragic events is no longer just a luxury, and we do not exaggerate if we say that it will be a defining factor in determining the future of many countries.

—————————————————————–

Sources