Mobile therapy centre for Palestinian children

With your help, children's souls can be healed Why not help and support this project? Since March 2003, SOS Children's Villages has been running a special aid project on the West Bank. The mobile therapy centre will provide children with psychotherapeutic and medical support. The first stop for this facility is Bethlehem. Photo: R. Moosbrugger It rarely hits the headlines but an everyday reality at the centre of any conflict is the catastrophic effect on the psychological health of children. They suffer most from the constant atmosphere of violence and fear. A high percentage of children in the Palestinian territories show highly pronounced symptoms of psychological strain, which vary from disturbed sleep and anxiety through bed-wetting and poor concentration to complete withdrawal from the outside world. An estimated 60% of these children require urgent psychological help. Dr. Tawfiq with one of his young patients - Photo: R. Moosbrugger The man responsible for the project, Dr. Tawfiq Salman, and his team - a medical assistant, a lab technician, a psychologist and a social worker - reckon on between 2,000 and 2,500 patients per year. They will offer house visits, psychological tests and support; play and speech therapy, physiotherapy and drug therapy. The therapy centre will remain in Bethlehem for the next two months. It will then move on to Salfeet, Jericho, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qualila, Ramalah, Hebron and Nablus, towns where there is virtually no psychological or psychotherapeutic support for traumatised children. Official opening with representatives of the Palestinian National Authority and SOS Children's Villages - Photo: R.M. You donation will help cover the running costs and the purchase of desperately needed medicine. Please help us with this therapy programme - it's a matter of survival for Palestinian children. Only with professional and intensive help can they be psychologically protected against the long term conflict in the Middle East. More information on the problems children are facing on the West Bank can be found in the Close Up section on our News page