Image courtesy Abdikadir Hassan, Country Director, Somalia
An independent, US-based mental health nonprofit dedicated to methodically and systematically doing all we can toward transforming the lives of displaced children affected by war/armed conflict by offering need based assessment linked to sound, psychosocial and psychiatric interventions - and collaborating with the endeavors of other aid and humanitarian organizations supporting child wellbeing in that region as best we can.
contexts within which we find 'traveling' children existing:
"taken!"
children bought, children sold, an age-old business, around the world.
To effectively locate ourselves in the global humanitarian world, we educate ourselves along a number of critical parameters that,
taken together, comprise the complex, shifting, high risk contexts of young children who are being acted upon, for example, by exploitive adults for monetary reasons, such as "being taken" from their families forever, or, often, sold willingly by their desperately impoverished families (or what is left of these families) as a consequence natural disaster (perpetual famine, monsoon, etc.), intergenerational war and repeated armed conflict.
orphans and orphanages
"paper orphans"
"Paper Orphans": Exploring Child Trafficking for the Purpose of Orphanages"
international law
No formal legal academic research appears to be available "on how international law regards the displacement from family and subsequent construction as an orphan". This article provides a legal account of the movement of the child from the family to the orphanage, and considers whether this movement can be categorized as child trafficking under international law.
The major point of contention as to whether paper orphans are considered trafficked is whether or not they experience a form of exploitation that is included in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. This article examines the forms of exploitation that have been documented as being experienced by paper orphans and argues that the process of paper orphaning meets the current interpretation of the definition of trafficking.'
border and boat post-conflict, forcibly migrating children -
who survive crossing the sea by boat -- or survive months of wandering within their countries of origin to reach the border, then attempt to cross that most dangerous region of all - the border - as they desperately seek safety and refuge -- are utterly vulnerable, open season for exploitation, many versions of trafficking, highly susceptible to terrorist recruitment such as by Taliban along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan who target impoverished, unschooled, unskilled, jobless, homeless and hungry adolescent orphans, and even targeted for trafficking as they approach refugee camps and shelters.(MSPHSS):
"Traveling Children": found on the road, are trafficked even at the door to the camps:
Trafficking of every kind floods the routes of post-conflict children and youth, increasingly occurring upon their reaching European camps - where traffickers meeting the children very near the camps has become a major concern.
Because they are displaced, young, nieve, and inexperienced, the traveling children are exhausted and extremely vulnerable.
Forcibly migrating children rarely understand the languages being spoken, nor how to navigate and survive on the streets of cities.
The minority of post-conflict, forcibly migrating children who survive crossing the sea by boat -- or survive wandering within their countries of origin to reach the border then attempt to cross that most dangerous region of all as they desperately seek safety and refuge -- are totally vulnerable, open season for exploitation, highly susceptible to terrorist recruitment such as by Taliban along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan who target impoverished, unschooled, unskilled, jobless, homeless and hungry adolescent orphans.
Trafficking of every kind floods the routes of post-conflict children and youth, increasingly occurring upon their reaching European camps - intercepting them in their first hours as they arrive with seductive promises. Their continued attempts to lure particularly the youngest the children away from the camps has become a major concern.
once displaced, children are extremely vulnerable.
They usually do not understand the languages being spoken, and are utterly inexperienced, hungry, ill, injured, lonely. As an international humanitarian nonprofit organization, we are dedicated to providing need- and research-based assessment to inform psychosocial and psychiatric treatment, relieving suffering for some of these children and young people.. We work with them in camps and groups and collaborate with likeminded humanitarian organizations.
Many of our Country Directors are mental health providers and young psychologists already serving in humanitarian capacities with established aid and relief organizations and schools within or near their countries of origin. We provide additional training, consultation, mentoring, assisting and monitoring them on special projects.
evaluating their needs
We train personnel in the nature and effects of trauma in post conflict children and youth, interviewing traumatized children of different ages and developmental levels, providing appropriate, valid, psychological assessment of direct war experiences, ways of coping, and remaining post traumatic stress symptoms. The profile that emerges from this data guides subsequent individual and group and interventions.
intervention and treatment
From this rich data, we propose that the children can be grouped for treatment with a degree of precision unique for children and youth in Emergency refugee settings.
A related aspect of our mission is to provide contextually-focused, targeted support for specific projects our Country Directors may develop or become engaged in which strengthen areas that clearly enhance assistance and protection, projects related to the enhancing of children's immediate health and mental health ("there is no health without mental health"), such as --
methodology . . . Profiles of scores obtained from the assessments will be categorized, assisting in the formation of treatment groups composed of children with similar war experiences, ways of coping; and degree of severity of mental health needs. Interventions may well be varied by site and developmental level, as project is projected to be conducted in nine ten different countries with vastly disparate settings, housed within a variety of aid organizations and schools, agencies, etc.
interventions . . . a brief overview of our intervention philosophy is that they are based in the initial assessments, the children are given tools for managing grief and emotional dysregulation, soothing, steadying, and centering themselves, such as mindfulness exercises, contemplative exercises, and prayer practices. Children and youth are given opportunities to express and process their experiences, thoughts and feelings through expressive art in a group (community) setting with trained, trusted, safe adults to experience the advantages of being in community for healing and building trust. Children are also involved in co-creating other theme-related expressive arts projects together which are more explicitly didactic around subjects such as hope and adversity, such as creating birds for the wishing trees, transferring their pain and wishes into art forms such as stories, pictures, art projects, dance, music, and sharing those.
Summary of Mission/Treatment/Interventions:
assessment of status, soothing & centering, memorializing losses/creating symbols of hope
Always Be Listening assesses the early psychosocial and psychiatric status of war/armed conflicted affected children and youth who have been forcibly migrated, crossing borders into camps in receiving countries, in order to provide accurate and rapid access to research-informed treatment.
First, we assess the children's unique, lived experiences of war, the ways they coped, and the nature of chronic terror that remains in their everyday lives: war trauma's aftermath. The components of this "war traumatization-aftermath of terror" are unique to each child, presumed to be difficult to distinguish from the confounding factor of each child's debilitating, overwhelming and complex grief from multiple losses, acute and chronic sorrow from deaths of loved ones; as well, there are intertwining mental health (psychiatric) conditions: PTSD, depression, anxiety; dissociation, all of these known to co-vary with individual development and extremely adverse circumstances, acute situational disruptions related to the resettlement process.
Patterns of children's profiles obtained from interview-assessments will be useful in determining children's immediate psychological treatment needs, specifically, for placing them into groups of children with similar needs for intervention, but they are in no way specific enough to be diagnostically reliable. Country-based, linguistically consonant, trained mental health, educational and other humanitarian workers will read questions to individual children, in order that they not be required to read or write.
A second treatment phase, Introducing mindfulness, contemplative exercises and prayer practices for children, will support the development of emotion-focused coping skills for emotional regulation, recognizing and identifying grief responses, practicing soothing and centering techniques.
A third phase of treatment consists of co-creating expressive art projects, memorializing their loved ones and losses and creating symbols of hope. These activities enable children to function as a group (a simulation of "family") to express and symbolize their pain from war traumatization, multiple loss and bereavement. Children in groups can have an enhanced experience of coping as they experience the support of community in a protected space with skilled, trained, predictable adult 'presence'. In community, they draw strength from each other as they grieve, mourn, share wishes and find hope together with well-established, felt support in a familiar, safe, community. It is hoped that these experiences will be well internalized.
quality, accountability, sustainability:
As we conduct our listening and intervention project, we pursue the highest professional standards of quality, accountability, and sustainability. Our humanitarian workers are chosen from within their countries, are fluent in the country languages, are trained, experienced listeners and interpreters of children's symbolic communications through text, image, movement and facial expression, are good communicators and well-connected to their communities, ready to improve and modify their services to make them more effective. They age trained, as well, in the highest ethical and socio-religious and cultural diversity standards, and are required to consult frequently and systematically with our organization's leaders.
While inspired by work done by Dr. Jess Ghannam with Palestinian youth, every country's issues are different, and immediate situations are unique, each with differing demands. We are sensitive to those demands, and take time to listen to those who live and work in each primary setting as we plan.
gender-based violence:
An iron-clad relationship exists between forced displacement and gender-based violence within the framework of armed conflict.
As gender-based violence/harassment, specifically, repeated sexual crimes against children, girls, and boys as direct victims, and repeated exposure to the gender-based violent crimes perpetrated against other children and adult women and men -- are a horrific co-occurring reality in the multiple wars and forced migrations in the world today, particularly in developing countries, where feasible we address its nature, prevention, an effects as a component of the children's general war experiences - (we are currently assisting with developing grant-based support in for Burundian refugees in camps and have three Country Directors experienced in leading prevention and treatment grant-funded efforts in other countries: Uganda and So/Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania.
A major obstacle to relieving the suffering and recovery of child victims is not exposing them to additional harm or retaliation from perpetrators or from family members or their community. as sexual violence is highly stigmatized in many regions (such as central Africa) and children who are identified as victims risk being abandoned by their families and communities.
We continue to obtain consultation regarding the degree to which it is wise to include interventions regarding gender-based violence formally in our project. Several Country Directors are extremely well-trained and experienced in conducting prevention and treatment programs on this subject (Somalia, Burundi, Tanzania).
contexts within which we find 'traveling' children existing:
"taken!"
children bought, children sold, an age-old business, around the world.
To effectively locate ourselves in the global humanitarian world, we educate ourselves along a number of critical parameters that,
taken together, comprise the complex, shifting, high risk contexts of young children who are being acted upon, for example, by exploitive adults for monetary reasons, such as "being taken" from their families forever, or, often, sold willingly by their desperately impoverished families (or what is left of these families) as a consequence natural disaster (perpetual famine, monsoon, etc.), intergenerational war and repeated armed conflict.
orphans and orphanages
"paper orphans"
"Paper Orphans": Exploring Child Trafficking for the Purpose of Orphanages"
- Author: Kathryn E. van Doore1
- Source: The International Journal of Children's Rights, Volume 24, Issue 2,pages 378 – 407 Publication Year : 2016
- DOI: 10.1163/15718182-02402006
- ISSN: 0927-5568 E-ISSN: 1571-8182
- Document Type: Research Article
- Subjects: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
- Subscription and article submission information
international law
No formal legal academic research appears to be available "on how international law regards the displacement from family and subsequent construction as an orphan". This article provides a legal account of the movement of the child from the family to the orphanage, and considers whether this movement can be categorized as child trafficking under international law.
The major point of contention as to whether paper orphans are considered trafficked is whether or not they experience a form of exploitation that is included in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. This article examines the forms of exploitation that have been documented as being experienced by paper orphans and argues that the process of paper orphaning meets the current interpretation of the definition of trafficking.'
border and boat post-conflict, forcibly migrating children -
who survive crossing the sea by boat -- or survive months of wandering within their countries of origin to reach the border, then attempt to cross that most dangerous region of all - the border - as they desperately seek safety and refuge -- are utterly vulnerable, open season for exploitation, many versions of trafficking, highly susceptible to terrorist recruitment such as by Taliban along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan who target impoverished, unschooled, unskilled, jobless, homeless and hungry adolescent orphans, and even targeted for trafficking as they approach refugee camps and shelters.(MSPHSS):
"Traveling Children": found on the road, are trafficked even at the door to the camps:
Trafficking of every kind floods the routes of post-conflict children and youth, increasingly occurring upon their reaching European camps - where traffickers meeting the children very near the camps has become a major concern.
Because they are displaced, young, nieve, and inexperienced, the traveling children are exhausted and extremely vulnerable.
Forcibly migrating children rarely understand the languages being spoken, nor how to navigate and survive on the streets of cities.
The minority of post-conflict, forcibly migrating children who survive crossing the sea by boat -- or survive wandering within their countries of origin to reach the border then attempt to cross that most dangerous region of all as they desperately seek safety and refuge -- are totally vulnerable, open season for exploitation, highly susceptible to terrorist recruitment such as by Taliban along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan who target impoverished, unschooled, unskilled, jobless, homeless and hungry adolescent orphans.
Trafficking of every kind floods the routes of post-conflict children and youth, increasingly occurring upon their reaching European camps - intercepting them in their first hours as they arrive with seductive promises. Their continued attempts to lure particularly the youngest the children away from the camps has become a major concern.
once displaced, children are extremely vulnerable.
They usually do not understand the languages being spoken, and are utterly inexperienced, hungry, ill, injured, lonely. As an international humanitarian nonprofit organization, we are dedicated to providing need- and research-based assessment to inform psychosocial and psychiatric treatment, relieving suffering for some of these children and young people.. We work with them in camps and groups and collaborate with likeminded humanitarian organizations.
Many of our Country Directors are mental health providers and young psychologists already serving in humanitarian capacities with established aid and relief organizations and schools within or near their countries of origin. We provide additional training, consultation, mentoring, assisting and monitoring them on special projects.
evaluating their needs
We train personnel in the nature and effects of trauma in post conflict children and youth, interviewing traumatized children of different ages and developmental levels, providing appropriate, valid, psychological assessment of direct war experiences, ways of coping, and remaining post traumatic stress symptoms. The profile that emerges from this data guides subsequent individual and group and interventions.
- psychosocial (situational responses) responses are those that can be observed such as grief and loss in response to poverty, natural disaster, war, etc., and
- psychiatric/psychological conditions are conditions that have developed (symptoms observed) such as PTSD or Depression in war/armed conflict affected children in refugee camps and groups (WACCG) and sometime in homes, community and medical centers near active conflict zones or where soldiers have temporarily returned to their families from active military duty to recover from torture and medical complications (as in Ukraine, one of our newest countries).
intervention and treatment
From this rich data, we propose that the children can be grouped for treatment with a degree of precision unique for children and youth in Emergency refugee settings.
A related aspect of our mission is to provide contextually-focused, targeted support for specific projects our Country Directors may develop or become engaged in which strengthen areas that clearly enhance assistance and protection, projects related to the enhancing of children's immediate health and mental health ("there is no health without mental health"), such as --
- contributing to dissemination of information related to improved child and maternal/child sanitation and health and reproductive health in partnership with global health organizations already working in these areas.
- educating against gender-based violence in Burundi, Somali, Kenya, and South Sudan
- reducing the effects of stigma which impedes prevention, identification and treatment of Pediatric AIDS (rates of adult AIDS in the Kibera Slums are presumed to be 65% and Sickle Cell Anemia).
- supporting the work of Country Directors by assisting with project development and grant acquisition, sharing resources and experience.
methodology . . . Profiles of scores obtained from the assessments will be categorized, assisting in the formation of treatment groups composed of children with similar war experiences, ways of coping; and degree of severity of mental health needs. Interventions may well be varied by site and developmental level, as project is projected to be conducted in nine ten different countries with vastly disparate settings, housed within a variety of aid organizations and schools, agencies, etc.
interventions . . . a brief overview of our intervention philosophy is that they are based in the initial assessments, the children are given tools for managing grief and emotional dysregulation, soothing, steadying, and centering themselves, such as mindfulness exercises, contemplative exercises, and prayer practices. Children and youth are given opportunities to express and process their experiences, thoughts and feelings through expressive art in a group (community) setting with trained, trusted, safe adults to experience the advantages of being in community for healing and building trust. Children are also involved in co-creating other theme-related expressive arts projects together which are more explicitly didactic around subjects such as hope and adversity, such as creating birds for the wishing trees, transferring their pain and wishes into art forms such as stories, pictures, art projects, dance, music, and sharing those.
Summary of Mission/Treatment/Interventions:
assessment of status, soothing & centering, memorializing losses/creating symbols of hope
Always Be Listening assesses the early psychosocial and psychiatric status of war/armed conflicted affected children and youth who have been forcibly migrated, crossing borders into camps in receiving countries, in order to provide accurate and rapid access to research-informed treatment.
First, we assess the children's unique, lived experiences of war, the ways they coped, and the nature of chronic terror that remains in their everyday lives: war trauma's aftermath. The components of this "war traumatization-aftermath of terror" are unique to each child, presumed to be difficult to distinguish from the confounding factor of each child's debilitating, overwhelming and complex grief from multiple losses, acute and chronic sorrow from deaths of loved ones; as well, there are intertwining mental health (psychiatric) conditions: PTSD, depression, anxiety; dissociation, all of these known to co-vary with individual development and extremely adverse circumstances, acute situational disruptions related to the resettlement process.
Patterns of children's profiles obtained from interview-assessments will be useful in determining children's immediate psychological treatment needs, specifically, for placing them into groups of children with similar needs for intervention, but they are in no way specific enough to be diagnostically reliable. Country-based, linguistically consonant, trained mental health, educational and other humanitarian workers will read questions to individual children, in order that they not be required to read or write.
A second treatment phase, Introducing mindfulness, contemplative exercises and prayer practices for children, will support the development of emotion-focused coping skills for emotional regulation, recognizing and identifying grief responses, practicing soothing and centering techniques.
A third phase of treatment consists of co-creating expressive art projects, memorializing their loved ones and losses and creating symbols of hope. These activities enable children to function as a group (a simulation of "family") to express and symbolize their pain from war traumatization, multiple loss and bereavement. Children in groups can have an enhanced experience of coping as they experience the support of community in a protected space with skilled, trained, predictable adult 'presence'. In community, they draw strength from each other as they grieve, mourn, share wishes and find hope together with well-established, felt support in a familiar, safe, community. It is hoped that these experiences will be well internalized.
quality, accountability, sustainability:
As we conduct our listening and intervention project, we pursue the highest professional standards of quality, accountability, and sustainability. Our humanitarian workers are chosen from within their countries, are fluent in the country languages, are trained, experienced listeners and interpreters of children's symbolic communications through text, image, movement and facial expression, are good communicators and well-connected to their communities, ready to improve and modify their services to make them more effective. They age trained, as well, in the highest ethical and socio-religious and cultural diversity standards, and are required to consult frequently and systematically with our organization's leaders.
While inspired by work done by Dr. Jess Ghannam with Palestinian youth, every country's issues are different, and immediate situations are unique, each with differing demands. We are sensitive to those demands, and take time to listen to those who live and work in each primary setting as we plan.
gender-based violence:
An iron-clad relationship exists between forced displacement and gender-based violence within the framework of armed conflict.
As gender-based violence/harassment, specifically, repeated sexual crimes against children, girls, and boys as direct victims, and repeated exposure to the gender-based violent crimes perpetrated against other children and adult women and men -- are a horrific co-occurring reality in the multiple wars and forced migrations in the world today, particularly in developing countries, where feasible we address its nature, prevention, an effects as a component of the children's general war experiences - (we are currently assisting with developing grant-based support in for Burundian refugees in camps and have three Country Directors experienced in leading prevention and treatment grant-funded efforts in other countries: Uganda and So/Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania.
A major obstacle to relieving the suffering and recovery of child victims is not exposing them to additional harm or retaliation from perpetrators or from family members or their community. as sexual violence is highly stigmatized in many regions (such as central Africa) and children who are identified as victims risk being abandoned by their families and communities.
We continue to obtain consultation regarding the degree to which it is wise to include interventions regarding gender-based violence formally in our project. Several Country Directors are extremely well-trained and experienced in conducting prevention and treatment programs on this subject (Somalia, Burundi, Tanzania).