Funding needs for third year of the project: approximately £20,000 / $37,000. These funds are being sought from trusts, institutions and individuals worldwide. We welcome donations big and small, and new contacts who might assist with support for this cutting-edge program. To donate, click here.  |
Listen to My Voice
A unique psychological support project
at the Hope Flowers School
Listen to My Voice provides a psychological support program for children and their families. The program has two objectives:
- To provide desperately needed help for the children and families of Bethlehem which addresses a downward-spiralling cycle of violence and trauma, and prevents future hostile behaviour. We believe that every act of violence is a result of an unhealed wound.
- To create a model for wider use in the schools of the Holy Land and to become a centre of excellence for the psychological support of the peoples of the West Bank.
The program provides psychological support and trauma counselling not only to Hope Flowers School students and their families but also to children and families from the local community.
What it involves
The psychological support program started in 2004 and involves the following:
- Observation of individual children at the school - in some cases teacher attention can assist them;
- Personal counselling and attention for children by our psychologist, helping them bring out their feelings and develop ways to transform their attitudes, behaviour and plans;
- Discussion and home visits with parents, to help them manage family and neighbourhood problems;
- Coordination between psychologists, social workers and teachers, to incorporate new educational methods for emotional release and development;
- Training of teachers from Hope Flowers and other schools;
- Holding meetings and forums for parents;
- Generally taking initiatives and innovating according to need and as situations develop.
The results of this program will become clearer in the long run. The Hope Flowers School is currently seeking significant funding to start a training and support program in Bethlehem and Hebron, transmitting its knowledge and experience to other schools, so that they can begin to apply similar techniques, and eventually it is our hope to persuade the Palestinian Authority to adopt peace and democracy education in all schools in Palestine - this will take a few years.
New developments
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The following elements have been added to the program:
- Most of the Palestinian psychologists and social workers have degrees in general psychology or counselling, without sufficient skills to work with traumatised children. Therefore we have added supervision and training of our program staff in order to upgrade their skills in counselling;
- Most Palestinian teachers suffer from burn-out, a fact that became obvious after the evaluation of the psycho-social needs of teachers at the Hope Flowers School and other schools in the area. Therefore burn-out counselling sessions have been provided to schoolteachers.
- Family counselling sessions were provided, mostly for parents of students at the Hope Flowers School. The school is now providing counselling for more families from the local community, whether or not their children attend the school.
- Most schools do not have school counsellors, and teachers are not sufficiently aware of how to identify and deal with traumatised students, or where to refer them. The psycho-social department of the Hope Flowers School is moving towards becoming a crisis intervention centre for students and their families.
What is the benefit to children and their families?
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The psychological program assists people in managing with stress and the shadow of pain by exploring alternative and peaceful ways of resolving conflicts within and between themselves. We help children face psychological trauma, fear and loss of hope, enabling them to express their feelings and release their pain. We help them develop coping skills and strategies, assisting them in overcoming personal, social and academic difficulties.
We run parental support groups in which we help parents to express their feelings and speak about their hardships, engaging their support and helping them develop new parenting skills to address problems they face with their children and neighbours on a daily basis. Allowing parents to share their feelings and experiences in safe circumstances helps them connect with each other and cooperate in problem-solving.
Evaluation
Regarding our aim to provide help for the children and families of Bethlehem, results were very successful. Many children and families benefited from our services, as well as teachers from other schools. In 2005, the psychological support department provided counselling for more than 80 children from the local community, 67 teachers from 14 schools in Bethlehem and Hebron, and for more than 55 other families from the area.
Regarding the aim to address a downward-spiralling cycle of violence and trauma, and to prevent future hostile behaviour, our program helps children and their families heal the wounds of war. This prevents future anxious and hostile behaviour. Listen to My Voice is necessary groundwork in the process of creating a just peace, preventing future hostility, preventing escalation of violence and building bridges for reconciliation. The results of our approach will become more obvious in the course of time.
Regarding the creation of a model for wider use in the schools of the Holy Land and our becoming a centre of excellence for the psychological support of the peoples of the West Bank, Listen to my Voice has been remarkably successful. This is evidenced by the increasing number of beneficiaries to the program and the number of people referred to us by other schools and organisations in the region.
None of our former graduates has been involved in violence. We believe that Listen to My Voice heals the wounds of war and helps prevent future escalation in violence.
Despite their difficulties Palestinians have become one of the world's most highly qualified ethnic groups in academic terms and we enable hereby our children, hungry for education, to continue this trend because it gives us hope. Palestinian society is by nature friendly, peaceful and cooperative, and it is important that bitterness and psychological problems do not weaken this.
Professional Response
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This program is a trail-blazer, and it has attracted attention here in Palestine and far and wide. The psychological support program is in its third year of implementation and its director has been told by the Palestinian Union for Psychologists and Social Workers that the school has become a profound professional in the field.
In addition, educationalists and therapists from abroad have visited the school, providing ideas, noting our practices and generally voicing approval.
We would welcome qualified external evaluation from a professional from Europe or USA. This would help us learn from other places and help in our contacts with other schools and fund-providers. It would also be an early step in sharing these techniques and results with the wider world.
On behalf of the Hope Flowers School students, staff, local community I wish to thank everyone who has thus far supported the counselling program Listen to My Voice. The work now needs to continue, and further financial support is very welcome.
Ibrahim Issa
Coordinator, Hope Flowers School
This piece is abstracted from a report to the Hilda & Alice Clark Charitable Settlement, UK, which has contributed financially to the Listen to My Voice program.
