23-01-2009
Following its reopening after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, much of QCC ‘s work has focussed over the period on dealing with the invasion and its effects on children. An emergency 5-week entertainment programme was put in place, often involving parents, which included games, creative writing, competitions, film screenings and free drawing. Another special programme for children affected by the war focussed on forty boys and girls from the Al-Zaytoun area, who had experienced severe trauma as a consequence of violence. This included a number of psychological exercises to help children
express their response to their experiences through play, drawing, storytelling, psychodrama, playacting and musical performance. An exhibition of drawings by children, entitled Scribbles from Gaza , revealed some the thoughts and ideas that had preoccupied their minds about the war and continued to do so.
The Extended Services Programme also focussed on several of the areas worst affected by the war. In collaboration with the Gaza Mental Health Project, it organised a programme of activities including storytelling, free drawing, graffiti art, film screenings etc. This programme was implemented in schools in BeitLahya, Jabalya and Khan Younis, and will soon also be taken to schools in Gaza City itself as well as badly hit areas in the Central and Southern Governorates. Finally, a UK Parliamentary delegation visited the Centre and was able to get a first hand account of the war from the children. It also visited the destroyed premises of the Gaza Music School.