Child Friendly Spaces- A Ray of Hope for flood affected children

By Jawahir Habib

Children are the most vulnerable in the aftermaths of any natural disaster, war or conflicts. In emergencies such as floods children are at a very high risk of water-borne illnesses due to lack of clean water and sanitation. A child may get separated from his parents, may lose friends or siblings. Events such as leaving the home, their schools and living in overcrowded spaces may leave children distressed. These disasters are followed by instability which affects both children and adults and can result in psychological damage to children.

Child Friendly Space Quetta

Estimated more than 8 Million children have been affected in by the floods in Pakistan. UNICEF has built structured safe sites where children meet peers, play, get involved in some informal education, relax and learn skills to deal with the risk they are face. These spaces aim on promoting sense of safety in the children, keeping the children away from dangerous places and protecting the children from exploitation or abuse.

Unicef Balochistan along with its partner organizations has established eight child friendly spaces for IDPs in district Quetta and Sibi. Four of these child friendly spaces are established in Eastern Bypass IDP camp Quetta which hosts more than one fifty families.240 children have joined these child friendly spaces in IDP camp Quetta. These children are provided with a safe and friendly environment to get involved in indoor games, make friends and get involved in more informal education where main focus is on Health education, literacy and numeracy and on life skills.

These child friendly spaces are accessible to both genders, different age groups of children are involved in different activities. Based on the cultural norms boys and girls are provided with separate child friendly spaces. The volunteers working in these child friendly spaces are from the host community and are trained in providing psychosocial support to the children.

Four of these child friendly spaces are established in Sibi mela camp. About 300 children are provided psychosocial support in the CFS, given an opportunity to express and voice their feelings and provided with a sense of safety.

Most of us would worry about what a child may become tomorrow, yet some forget that he is someone today...We at UNICEF keep that in mind while planning for Children affected by emergencies and Child Friendly Spaces established by Child protection UNICEF are an example .Let us join hands and unite for Children of Balochistan affected by the floods.