Education Palestine Project #31839

Help Traumatized Palestinian Children

by American Friends of the Spafford Children's Center

Project Report | Oct 20, 2022
Trauma Recovery Program

By Wendy Whiting Blome | Project Leader

Children Expressing their Feelings with Puppets

The Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Project at the Spafford Children’s Center in East Jerusalem is doing incredible work. Consider Jawaria a 10-year-old girl who lives with her mother, father, and a sibling with Downs Syndrome. Both parents work to support the family. There are also siblings from the father’s first marriage, and Jawaria often feels alone and over-looked. Her school is crowded and she has had scary experiences going to and from school when heavily armed soldiers search her backpack and want to look under her coat. She is quiet at home, stays away from other kids at school, and quietly cries when she thinks no one can hear her. Her mother became concerned when Jawaria’s grades dropped and she refused to talk about school or her studies. Her father became angry about the report card, and Jawaria ran out of the house scared.

Following a comprehensive child and family assessment that involved SCC’s PhD psychologist, the trauma specialist, and a social worker, Jawaria began twice-a-week sessions. The trauma specialist, Yazan, is a man of incredible gifts. Not only does he have training in trauma treatment, he also has an ability to connect with children who have been traumatized and help them feel safe. Through puppet shows, breathing exercises, visual sensory exercises, psychodrama groups, and drawing sessions, Yazan helped Jawaria express her feelings and communicate with her peers. In the early sessions her drawings expressed sadness and loneliness and by the end of her time in the program her paintings were filled with bright colors and expressed hope and optimism. Gradually, Jawaria became more confident and was able to speak in front of a group without overpowering anxiety.

The relationship with her parents improved as they came to better understand Jawaria’s needs. The social worker met with Jawaria’s mother individually and in a group with other mothers, and her father came to several sessions to learn more about how to support his daughter.

Jawaria is now enrolled in math and Arabic tutoring at SCC to help pick up her grades, and she has discovered a love of art and music. She is continuing art instruction with Yazan when she comes to SCC.

The Spafford Children’s Center is unique; it takes a comprehensive approach to children, families, and their needs. You can help support the life-changing work of this project funded by the American Friends of the Spafford Children’s Center. Your donations are critically important to keep this work growing.

Psychodrama at SCC

Expressing Artistic Talent at SCC

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Jul 27, 2022
Summer Camp at the Spafford Children's Center

By Wendy Whiting Blome, PhD | Project Leader

A fresh fruit snack

Summer camp at the Spafford Children’s Center (SCC) will end this week. What an amazing time the children have had as they learned new skills, made new friends, and had loads of fun!

The SCC offers a respite from the tensions that pervade the world of Palestinian children. Walking to school can be a frightening experience, seeing arrests and home demolitions can cause children to feel fearful, uncertain, and vulnerable. The programs at SCC recognize that trauma may affect the ability of children to learn, make friends, be social, concentrate on academic or life problems, and experience the joys of childhood.

For decades the SCC has taken a wholistic approach to children by recognizing their psychological, social, and academic needs. In summer camp children play in teams—strategizing how to get the ball through a web of cone obstacles in the SCC courtyard. They also work in teams to run a soggy sponge of water from one bucket to another 15 feet away.

In their yellow and orange Spafford Children’s Center t-shirts campers followed their leaders in blue shirts through the winding streets of Jerusalem to sites they may never have seen. For example, there was a field trip to a museum in the Old City that features archeological displays of frescos, ceramics, Byzantine mosaics, and coins. Back at the Center it was time for a healthy snack prepared by the “Little Chefs” themselves. Look at the beautiful fruit cut into bite-size pieces and skewered on a stick for easy eating.

Games at the SCC are often simple and low cost, but very clever. Here children follow the handprints and footprints to get to the end of the course. It helps children learn dexterity and stretch their muscles—their giggling muscles, that is.

Your support for the American Friends of the Spafford Children’s Center is critical to provide educational, therapeutic, and recreational services all year and special events, like camp, during the summer. Please give as generously as you can through GlobalGiving at https://goto.gg/31839.

A cool game for a hot day

Follow the foot and handprints

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May 4, 2022
Help Fatima Succeed

By Wendy Whiting Blome, PhD | Project Leader

Making progress with one on one attention

When help starts early the progress can be amazing. Parents bring their children to the Spafford Children’s Center (SCC) where they know complex issues can be addressed. Think about Fatima a three-and-a-half-year-old girl living with her family in Jerusalem. Her parents were frantic; why did their beautiful little girl fall so much; why couldn’t she put on a jacket by herself like her brother could at the same age; why was turning the page of her favorite book so hard; and why couldn’t she use a pencil to draw a circle or a picture.

The SCC occupational therapy assessment showed a weakness in her hand muscles, gross motor delays, problems with balance and walking, and eye-hand coordination. Fatima did not have a dominate hand and struggled with visual perception tests. She found it hard to concentrate and often became frustrated with activities.

The SCC occupational therapist and social worker helped the parents understand the diagnosis from the neurologist and how sessions at SCC and at exercises at home could help. Armed with additional understanding, the parents became strong advocates for their daughter and her development.

After four months of occupational therapy services, Fatima showed improvement in holding the pencil, but it was still difficult for her to move her wrist. She can sit in a chair and do several activities for 3-5 minutes at a time. Her walking is a bit steadier and she has enjoyed fun activities at SCC where she can play with other children. Her visual perception has also improved including visual closure or the ability to visualize the whole of an object or picture when part of it is hidden and form constancy or the ability to recognize forms and objects as the same in various situations.

Obviously, Fatima will need more help, but now she and her parents know that progress is possible and she is enrolled in ongoing occupational therapy at SCC. This level of individual attention is hard for Palestinians to find in Jerusalem. Your donations to the American Friends of the Spafford Children’s Center (AFSCC) are critically important to continue theses services to Fatima and other children like her. Remember that all of the money you contribute to AFSCC goes directly to SCC as all AFSCC expenses are paid through donations made by the Board of Directors.

Threading beads is a challenge

Helping with hand eye coordination

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