Lebanon: AMA offers psychosocial support to children at the Aman School of Excellence

This week, trained staff at Lebanon’s AMA sponsored Aman School of Excellence ran psychosocial support activities for young children at the school. 

The school, which is located in the country’s Beqaa region, was opened earlier this month, and has hundreds of students, many of whom are orphans and refugees. 

Since many of the children have faced displacement, or were forced to flee war from neighbouring Syria, many suffer from anxiety, depression or PTSD. 

For many of the students who live in the refugee camps nearby, experiencing distress as a result of poverty and displacement is common.

The sessions were designed by AMA to provide mental-health support for the children and encourage their development. 

The activities included one-to-one support sessions, educating children, learning through play and developing confidence in them as well as assessments to gauge whether they need to be referred to other services. 

Hussain Choonara, AMA’s region director emphasised that there is an urgent need for such services.

“Many children at the school are refugees and have experienced trauma. We say that children are the future but for them to be the future, they have to unpack and deal with what they’ve been through, or what they are currently going through,” he said. 

“The support is not only for the child, but for parents too, many of whom were once giving charity, and find themselves being on the receiving end of charity today. All of this takes its toll, which is why psychosocial support is so important in helping people deal with the past and their current situation,” he added. 

Addressing children’s psychosocial needs is an essential part of AMA’s work in supporting vulnerable communities. 

So far, the service has been successful in allowing children to look forward to a brighter future ahead, and is a continuing project of AMA’s.