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TWI for the Children Projects in Bosnia Success Stories 1998
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Summer Camp for Children with emotional disturbances and learning disorders
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A series of day-camps held in schools and orphanages for children who may be emotionally disturbed and may have learning disorders as a result of the trauma they experienced during the 5 year war in Bosnia. Goals:
(1) Give back to children the childhood they loss because of the war; (2) Help
them heal their pain and anger through interactive (3) Develop
skills that
will help
them as they
move into
‘adulthood competence’
in intellectual, emotional,
and physical
senses; (4) Provide
avenues for
them to
release their anger and express
their fears
in a
healthy and
loving environment; (5)Teach values of playing and working in harmony with others regardless of different ethnic and religious backgrounds through example: partnering American and Bosnian adults and teenagers to make up the Camp Leadership Team that plans and implements camp program as a team effort. Program: In partnership with St. Marks Lutheran Church of Springfield Virginia, TWI for the Children completed its second successful summer camp program for children in Bosnia. Camps must be held in schools and orphanages at this time, because the fields have not been cleared of mines and outside areas are not yet safe play areas. Participating children are selected by the directors of the schools and orphanages because: a) they have lost one or both parents during the recent conflict; b) they had to flee their homes and villages and live as refugees in other areas; and c) they have emotional problems caused by the trauma of their losses. Friendship Camps were held in the northern Bosnian village of Gradacac which was almost completely destroyed; a school in Ilidja, a suburb of Sarajevo, where people had to flee when the town was taken by enemy forces and became the front lines; a school in the Cengic Villa neighborhood of Sarajevo, in an area that was under siege for 5 years; the Dom I Porodica (Home and Family) orphanage in the central Bosnia town of Zenica where many of the children, orphaned by the war, were taken; and a school in the largely destroyed village of Potuci located just to the north of the city of Mostar, an area of that suffers almost complete devastation to villages, schools, churches and homes. Each Friendship Camp taught the values of reconciliation, sharing, giving, helping and loving your neighbor. These values were taught through stories reinforced by crafts, songs, group dancing, games, and team. By partnering with Bosnian teachers, staff members and local teenagers, we formed American-Bosnian leadership teams to demonstrate to the children how to live and work in harmony regardless of background or language. More than 500 children of mixed ethnic backgrounds attended the camps. All children were provided lunch, baseball caps, name tags, crafts, sports equipment, a friendship clown and a day of fun that many had never experienced. Friendship
Camps provide an opportunity to donate educational supplies and
to teach teachers at the schools and orphanages new activities to
use in their classrooms. These
activities teach basic values, sensitivity, teamwork, games and sports
which improve motor skills, as well as activities that help children
express their feelings of pain and anger, in ways other than aggressive
actions against other children and their care takers and teachers - and in
adulthood against society itself. Recommendations: (1) Expand the program to two days at each location; (2) Spend the second day in the countryside (lake, mountains) as part of the therapy; (3) Select stories, crafts and dances that reflect the diverse cultures of America (American Indian, African American, etc.) so they will get to know about the people of America; (4) Leave notebooks of activities, tapes of dance music, stories, games and instructions with teachers to be used throughout the year to reinforce our program; (5) Increase the size of our leadership team in order to reach a larger number of schools and orphanages next summer; (6) Encourage members of the Leadership Team in Bosnia to reflect on how the Friendship Camps should help the children and meet their personal expectations.
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Bosnian Children 'Homes’ Assessment and Training Project
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1998 Trauma Training Assessment Project Children who live through war and other forms of social crisis may adapt in ways that produce impaired development, physical damage, and emotional trauma…What is more, these children may be mis-socialized into a model of fear, violence, and hatred. War can lead to emotional trauma, learning disorders caused by developmental impairment, extremist, and revenge-oriented ideology. However, children can overcome the challenges of war if adults help them to process their experiences, heal their pain so that they can overcome these challenges in ways that help with their development. (NO PLACE TO BE A CHILD Growing Up in a War Zone by James Garbarino, Kathleen Kostelny, Nancy Dubrow)Using the assessments of the trauma team, TWI for the Children created a meaningful program to train the dedicated staff of Children’s Homes in Bosnia to identify and treat trauma in children; help the children to: assess their own needs; cope with their trauma; learn good social skills; and build their self-image and self-confidence so that they will become happy and useful members of their community
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Project: Trauma Training Assessment and Workshop for
staff in Children’s Homes (orphanages). Locations: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica and Mostar. Goals:
(1) Assess the training needs of staff directly working with the children without parents in Bosnia; (2) Collect data during our five day visit; (3) Assess the intensity of children’s trauma; (4) Present a one day training workshop designed to meet
the
highest priority training needs of the multiple staffs.
Assessment Program: Assisted by a generous donation from Dr. Jay Reibel, TWI for the Children, Inc. conducted assessments of the needs of the staff of selected orphanages in Bosnia to recognize and deal with troubled children in their care. In an effort to assess the degree of diversity between the different homes and to learn the needs of the staff, children and their home environment, a team of three professionals assisted by two TWI For the Children staff and interpreters, visited homes in four locations and made on-site assessments. In order to gain knowledge of conditions, cultural differences and individual needs in these homes that are located in different Cantons in Bosnia, assessments were made of orphanages in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla, the City of Sarajevo, the central Bosnian town of Zenica, and the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. In addition to visiting the facilities and speaking with the staff, interviews were conducted with selected children at the homes. Using a questionnaire designed specifically for this program, a prototype one-day workshop was conducted at the Zenica orphanage. The workshop was the result of an invitation issued in 1997 by the director of the orphanage in Zenica to teach directors, staff and teachers: (1) how to meet their own emotional needs; (2) how to help their children cope with emotional needs; and (3) to determine how participants would react to the American style of instruction. The workshop format encourages interaction among the participants and presents questions in a way which facilitates participation and sharing views and experiences. All on-site visits were preceded by written questionnaires sent to staff of each of the homes. We compared results of the written questionnaires with our on-site assessments to develop a “Needs Document”.
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