Comfort for Kids: Gaza Youth Support Materials

children smiling at camera
October 13, 2009

Mercy Corps West Bank and Gaza is proud to announce the publication of three Comfort for Kids (C4K) resources: a new children's workbook for children who experienced the Gaza War, and two pamphlets to help support the needs of children experiencing anticipatory anxiety.

C4K was created in 2001 to support the needs of trauma-affected children after 9/11. It has subsequently been incorporated into five other post-disaster settings to help children affected by hurricanes (USA and Guatemala, 2005), earthquakes (Peru 2007 and China 2008) and, most recently, as part of the response to the war in Gaza (2009).

The Gaza materials were developed under a DFID project by the Mercy Corps Gaza psychosocial team, representatives of the Children's Psychological Health Center (who co-developed children's workbooks for Hurricane Katrina, Guatemala and China) and Griffen Samples, C4K Senior Technical Advisor. The workbook and pamphlets are available in both Arabic and English.

The primary goal of each C4K response has been to build local capacity to support the needs of trauma-affected children. Information is conveyed through highly interactive training sessions and supplemented by publications tailored for each response. The first round of the DFID project in Gaza served around 4,000 children and 10,000 professionals and parents.