COVID prevention measures and health literacy make a difference for refugee children like Zahra
Refugee children exposed to living in open accommodation sites are vulnerable to health and mental health risks, which is why health literacy, measures for the prevention of COVID-19 and mental health support matter.
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Zahra is playing with her two younger siblings, a boy and a girl, 11 and 6 years old, by the seaside, at the Mavrovouni Reception and Accommodation camp in Lesvos. Zahra is 13 years old, from Afghanistan, and she had to travel through Iran before arriving with her family to Greece, more than two years ago.
“The situation in the camp is very hard for me, I can’t learn because (living) in the tent is very hard and I don’t even have a place to play”, she says.
Zahra is one of the 4,080 refugees and migrants, including children and parents, that UNICEF reached out to in a number of locations around Greece with information on the prevention of COVID-19. Front line workers demonstrated measures for the prevention of the virus and handed out posters and stickers so that people can practice what they learnt through access to visual instructions.
“I wash my hands, keep a safe distance from other people and I put my mask on-this way I can protect my friends and my family, and when I cough, I cover my mouth”, Zahra confirms by repeating all that she has learnt.
UNICEF, in the framework of the European Union’s “Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Children’s Health Status in Southern and South Eastern Europe”(the ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative), also provided psychosocial support services to over 2,150 children in 2020 and 2021. It also implemented capacity-building initiatives for health and frontline workers, for effective detection, referral and response in maternal and child health cases.
Zahra hopes for her and her family to stay healthy until the pandemic is over and feels a little encouraged to keep striving, not letting go of her dreams for the future, which include leaving Mavrovouni and getting on with her education: “I want to school and then go to university to become a teacher”, she says, her face lighting up. She surely can make it come true.
This story is part of the Project Strengthening Refugee and Migrant Children’s Health Status in Southern and South Eastern Europe, co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union (the ‘RM Child-Health’ initiative). The content of this story represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. It cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
