Help Traumatized Palestinian Children

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.