This paper seeks to articulate the main trends and challenges in the field of children affected by armed conflict. Its objective is to summarize lessons learned over the last decade, provoke reflection, generate questions and suggest potential strategies to improve the lives of more than one billion children affected by…
Building an evidence base on mental health interventions for children affected by armed conflict
This paper reviews what is currently known from research about the effectiveness of interventions to address mental health problems in children and adolescents affected by armed conflict. The focus will be on interventions delivered in conflict affected countries either during active humanitarian emergencies or during the post conflict period.
Art-based, narrative research with unaccompanied migrant children living in Johannesburg, South Africa
Migrant children are often represented through stereotypical narratives by media, governments and even researchers. These representations range from institutional narratives that reduce their experience to “pre-flight, flight, post flight” to psychological narratives that can represent them as traumatized victims of war.
Artbooks as witness of everyday resistance: Using art with displaced children living in Johannesburg, South Africa
Artbooks, which are a combined form of picture and story book created using mixed media, can be a simple yet powerful way of supporting children affected by war and displacement to tell their stories. They allow children to work through the creative arts, which protects them from being overwhelmed by…
Building cross-sector collaboration using participatory action research to improve community health in an urban slum in Accra, Ghana
A cross sector case study. Every urban slum creates challenges too complex for governments to resolve when working alone. Old Fadama, the largest slum in in Accra, Ghana, is home to over 100 000 people. Old Fadama has virtually no water or sanitation infrastructure, contributing to diminished quality of health…
The potential of a community-led approach to change harmful gender norms in low- and middle-income countries
Many of the programmes that achieve gender norms transformation in low- and middle-income countries are conducted at ‘community’ level. These programmes help people address existing relations of gender and power in their family and broader social networks. There are several programmatic strategies for community-level interventions that transform gender relations. This…
Child Friendly Spaces: Toward a Grounded, Community-Based Approach for Strengthening Child Protection Practice in Humanitarian Crises
Natural helpers play a critical role in ensuring children’s safety during and in the aftermath of crises.
What are the most effective early response strategies and interventions to assess and address the immediate needs of children outside of family care?
Children and Armed Conflict: Interventions for Supporting War-Affected Children
This article, which introduces the 2nd Special Issue on Children and Armed Conflict, outlines 3 pillars of systemic supports for war-affected children: comprehensiveness, sustainability, and Do No Harm. It shows how supports should be multileveled, resilience-oriented, multidisciplinary, tailored to fit different subgroups, and attentive to issues of policy and funding.
Children and Armed Conflict: Introduction and Overview
An article featuring the rise of systems thinking evident in ecological frameworks and child protection systems, it emphasises resilience approaches and the movement away from deficits frameworks that underscore disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It also identifies numerous obstacles to achieving a comprehensive understanding of war-affected children. Primary…