A journey of healing: Manar's discovery of self-expression
UNICEF’s mental health programmes equip children to cope with life’s hardship
Deir-ez-Zor city, northeast Syria – ‘Imagine if you bought a vegetable, put it in a bag and repeated this for a month every day. What would the vegetables look like at the end of the month?’ This is a question Manar, 13, contemplated carefully. “The feelings we don’t express and keep inside of us, accumulate. Like the collected vegetables which would start rotting after a while, sometimes unexpressed emotions can become an issue,” said Amani to Manar. Amani is a UNICEF-supported mobile team worker in Deir-ez-Zor city.
“It wasn’t the first time I’d taken her aside and tried to communicate with her, but this time she was ready to talk,” Amani said. Manar had not previously attended the psychosocial support activities, provided by the team at her school, regularly. But this time, Manar, who was shy and closed off to interaction with her peers, teared up.
Manar grew up knowing nothing but the conflict. She did not have any memories of her father, who passed away because of the conflict when she was only one year old. She liked to spend most of her time alone and did not interact much with anyone. In 2017, Manar moved with her grandmother to her uncle’s house in Deir-ez-Zor city after her mother decided to move back to her parents’ house on the outskirts of the city.
“I love my uncle’s family. He and his wife are like parents to me, and their children are like my own siblings, but I’ve always felt sad despite being surrounded by people who love me,” she said.
“Although we live a modest life, we’ve treated Manar as if she were our own. She has the same rights and duties my children have,” said Khadijeh, the wife of Manar’s uncle Abdulnaser. Khadijeh frequently tried to get Manar to open up but had no luck. “She preferred to stay in her room and draw. I couldn’t tell why she had a sad look in her eyes and why she talked very little,” added Khadijeh.
A year ago, Manar woke up in the middle of the night screaming and calling for her father. “I didn’t realize that the loss of her father caused her so much pain. Her uncle went to console her and calm her,” said Khadijeh. Sadly, not even the visits from her mother and siblings cheered Manar up.
At the beginning of 2024, a UNICEF-supported child protection team started visiting schools in Deir-ez-Zor to reach children with mental health and psychosocial support sessions. The sessions included activities to teach the children about expressing their feelings and understanding and managing their emotions.
Manar’s school was one of them. “Manar has made progress since the sessions at her school began. She has overcome her shyness and has more courage to socialize with us and her friends,” explained Khadijeh.
During one of the sessions, Amani put on relaxing music and asked the children to close their eyes. She asked them to imagine themselves visiting the sky, bringing back to earth all the things they would like to have, and drawing them on paper. At the end of the exercise, Manar approached Amani and showed her drawing. “I’ve always tried to imagine my father and draw him on paper. This is the first time I managed to capture him. Look, this is my father,” Manar told Amani.
After that day, Manar has become more expressive and she shares her feelings more openly. “My feelings were somehow foggy earlier, and I had no words to describe them. Now, I know how to describe and express each of them,” Manar said. “Every time the mobile team comes to school, I’m happy to see them and I smile.”
In 2023, UNICEF reached some 388,000 girls and boys with mental health and psychosocial support. The activities were funded by the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance; the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the KFW Development Bank; the Governments of Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan and New Zealand; the Global Humanitarian Thematic Fund; the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation; the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency; the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office; UNICEF National Committees for Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and UK; UNICEF Egypt and Singapore; and United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.
