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Good Morning

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Worldwide, over 1.5 billion people [br]experience armed conflict

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In response, people are forced to flee [br]their country.

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leaving over 15 million refugees.

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Children without a doubt are

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the most innocent and vulnerable victims.

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But not just from the obvious[br]physical dangers,

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but from, the often, unspoken affects[br]that wars have on their families.

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The experiences of war leave children [br]at real high risk

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for the development of emotional [br]and behavioural problems.

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Children as we can only imagine,

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will feel worried, threaten and at risk.

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But there is good news,

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the quality of care that children recieve

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in their families, can have a [br]more significant effects

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on their well-being, than from

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the actual experiences of war that [br]they have been exposed to.

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So actually, children can be protected

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by warm, secure parenting,

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during and after conflict.

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In 2011, I was a first year PHD Student

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in the University Of Manchester

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School Of Physiological Sciences.

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Like many of you here, I watched [br]the crisis in Syria

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unfold in front of me on the Tv.

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My family are originally from Syria,[br]and very early on

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I lost several family members[br]in really horrifying ways.

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I sat and I gathered with my family [br]and watched the TV.

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So we have all seen those scenes,

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bombs destroying, buildings, [br]chaos, destruction.

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and people screaming and running.

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it was always the people screaming[br]and running

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that really got me the most.

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Specially those terrified looking children.

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I was a mother to two young,[br]typically inquisitive children.

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They were five and six then.

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At an age when they typically [br]ask lots and lots of questions

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and expect real convincing answers.

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So I began to wonder what it might be like

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to parent my children in a war-zone [br]and a refugee camp.

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Would my children change?

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Would my daughter's bright happy [br]eyes lose their shine?

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Would my son's really relax [br]care-free nature

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become fearful and withdrawn?

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How would I cope?

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Would I change?

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As psychologists and parent's trainers

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we know that arming parents

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with skills and caring for their children

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can have a huge effect on their well-being.

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We call this parents training.

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So the questions I had

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was could Parent Training programs be useful for families

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while they're still in war-zones or refugee camps?

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Could we reach them with advise or training

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that would help them through the struggles?

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So, I approached my PHD supervisor,

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professor Rachel Calam,

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with the idea of using my academic skills

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to make some changes in the real world.

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I wasn't quite sure, exactly,[br]what I wanted to do.

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She listened carefully and patiently,

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And to my joy, she said:

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"If that is what you want to do,

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and it means so much to you, then [br]let's do it.

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Let's find ways to see if [br]parent programs can be useful

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for families in this contexts."

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So for the past five years myself and my colleagues,

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professor Calam and Dr. Kim Cartwright

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have been working on ways [br]to support families

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that have experienced war[br]and displacement.

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Now, to know how to help [br]families that have been

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through conflict, support their children,

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The first step must obviously be

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to ask them what are they [br]struggling with. Right?

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I mean, it seems obvious,[br][br]

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but often those are the [br]most vulnerable

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that we are trying to support that we actually don't ask.

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How many times have we just assumed

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we know exactly the right thing that [br]is gonna help someone or something

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without actually asking them first.

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So i travelled to the refugee camps [br]in Syria and in Turkey.

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And i sat with families and I listened.

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I listened to the parenting challenges

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I listened to the parenting struggles

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And I listened to their call for help

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And sometimes that was [br]just paused

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as all I could was hold hand[br]with them and just join them

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in silence crying and prayer

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So they told me about their struggles

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They told me about the rough, [br]harsh refugee camp condition

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That made it hard to focus on [br]anything but practical chores

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like collecting clean water

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He told me how they watch their [br]children with draw

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the sadness, depression, anger[br]bed-wetting, thumb sucking

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fear of loud noises, fear of nightmares[br]terrifying terrifying nightmares

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this families had been through[br]what we had been watching on the TV

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the mothers almost half of them were[br]now window of the wars

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or didn't even know their husbands[br]were dead or alive

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describe how they thought they[br]were coping so badly

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They watched their children change

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and they have had no idea [br]how to help them.

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They didn't know how to answer[br]their children's questions.

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Why I found incredibly [br]astonishing and so motivational

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was that these families was so [br]motivated to support their children

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Despite all the challenges they faced

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they were trying to help their children

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they were making attempts at seeking[br]support from NGO workers

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from refugee camp teachers,[br]professional medics, other parents.

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One mother I met had only been [br]account for 4 days

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and had already made two attempts[br]at seeking support

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for her eight -year-old daughter[br]

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who was having terrifying nightmares.

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But sadly, these attempts are [br]almost always useless.

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Refugee camp doctors when available [br]are almost always too busy or

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don't have the knowledge or[br]the time for basic parenting supports.

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Refugee camp teachers and other [br]parents I just like them

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part of a new refugee community[br]who's struggling with needs

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So then we began to think[br]how could we help these families.

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The families were struggling with things[br]much bigger than they could cope with.

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The Syrian crisis made it clear how[br]incredibly impossible it would be

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to reach families on an individual level.

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How else could we help them.

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How would we reach families[br]at a population level and low-cost

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in these terrifying terrifying times.

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After hours of speaking to NGO workers

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one suggested a fantastic innovative[br]idea of distributing

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parenting information leaflets [br]by a bread wrappers.

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Bread wrappers that were delivered[br]to a family

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in a conflict zone in Syria[br]by humanitarian workers

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So that's what we did

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The bread wrappers haven't changed[br]at all in their apperance

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except for the addition of two pieces[br]of paper.

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One was a parenting information leaflet[br]that had basic advice

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and information that normalizes[br]the parents

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what they might be experiencing[br]

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and what their children [br]might be experiencing

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and information on how they [br]could support themselves

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and their children

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such as information like spending time[br]talking to their child

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showing the more affection[br]being more patient with your child

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talking to your children.

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The other piece of paper [br]was a feedback question

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and of course there was a pen.

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So is this simply leaflet distribution

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or is it actually possible means of[br]delivering psychological first aid

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that provides warm secure

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loving parenting

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We managed to distribute 3000 of these[br]in just one week

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was incredible was we had [br]60-percent response rate

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SIxty-percent of the three thousand[br]families responded.

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I don't know how many reasearchs[br]we have here today

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but that kind of response rate[br]is fantastic

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to have the in Manchester[br]would be a huge achivement

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Let alone in conflict zone in Syria

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really highlighting how important[br]these kind of messages word to families.

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We ain't remember how [br]excited

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and eager we were

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for the return of question is

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the families had left hundreds [br]of messages

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most incredibly positive encouraging.

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My favorite has got to be

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"Thank you for not forgetting about us[br]and our children".

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This is really illustrates a potential [br]means of the delivery of psychological

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first data families and the return of [br]feedback to

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Just imagine replicating this using[br]other means

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such as baby look distribution

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or female hygiene kits [br]or even food baskets

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Let's bring this closer to home

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because the refugee crisis is one[br]

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having an effect on every single one of us

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We're bombarded with images [br]daily of statistics

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and photos

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and that's not surprising

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because by last month

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over 1 million refugees [br]had reached europe

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1 million refugees are joining[br]our communities

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They're becoming our neighbors

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their children are attending our [br]children schools

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So we've adapted the leaflets to [br]meet the needs of European refugees

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and we have them online open access

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and areas with a really high [br]refugee influx.

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For example, the Swedish healthcare[br]uploaded it

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onto their website

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within the first 45 mintutes

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it was downloaded 343 times

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really highlighting how important it is[br]for volunteers

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practitioners and other parents to have

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access psychological first aid messages.

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In 2013, I was sitting on the cold [br]hard tent floor of a refugee camp tent

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with mother sitting around me as[br]I was conducting a focus group

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across from East, an elderly lady

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with what seemed to be a 13-year-old[br]girl lying beside her

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with her head on the other ladies knees

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The girls stayed quiet throughout[br]the focus group not talking at all

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with her knees curled up [br]against her chest.

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Towards the end of the focus group

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and as I was thanking the mothers[br]for their time

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the other lady looked at me while[br]pointing at the young girl

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and said to me:" Can you help us with?"

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not quite sure what she expected[br]me to do

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I looked at the young girl and smiled,[br]in Arabic I said

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(Arabic)

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"What is your name?"

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She looked at me really confused [br]and engaged

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but then said:"Halluan"

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Halluan is the best name for[br]the Arabic female Halla

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and is only really used to refer[br]to really young girls.

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At that point, I realized that actually[br]Hallo was probably much

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older than thirteen, it turns out Halla [br]was a 25-year-old mother

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to three young children