A UK Charity for Children Traumatised by War

It is a rare year when fewer than 15 wars are happening somewhere in the world. These wars orphan one hundred thousand children, kill two hundred thousand children and seriously injure four hundred thousand children. Every year, over one million people are made homeless, and there are now over forty million refugees worldwide, of whom fifteen million are under eighteen and four million are under five. In particular, one million children are psychologically traumatised by war every year.

Psychological trauma, also known as Traumatic Stress or P.T.S.D., can occur following the experience of an event that causes intense fear and helplessness. It is the normal reaction to an abnormal experience. It is not inevitable - children of different ages react to things differently and two children can react completely differently to the same event. In most cases it will go away with time and help.

In an ideal world all those traumatised children would receive expert help, but we know this cannot always be the case and we believe that there is a need for a website such as this, which can lead an untrained person such as a parent or teacher, community or youth worker or a play leader to a greater understanding of the problems of child trauma, an ability to assess the level of trauma and an ability to correctly apply some or all of the techniques described on this website.

We are still a very young organisation and the site is a long way from finished. If you think there is something particularly valuable that could be on the site, please let us know at rap@lifeinpalestine.org