Life Skills … A national program of the Ministry of Culture that seeks to rehabilitate children affected in wartime

Damascus,(ST)- Since its launch eight years ago, the Life Skills program has sought to rehabilitate and take care of  Syrian children who are affected by the terrorist war. The program starts from Damascus and covers most of the Syrian governorates.

Regarding the  targeted children in wartime and the role of the life skills program, writer Nahla El-Souso underlined the importance of the program in easing the effects of war on our children  as the terrorists  launched their first slogan “no study or education”. Terrorists also displaced families from their homes and forced children to watch violence acts..

El-Souso indicated that the program launched by the Ministry of Culture through the Child Culture Directorate aims at making children safe, joyful, hopeful and happy.

The program kicked off in 2012 in 9 cultural centers in Damascus and its countryside .

One of the objectives of the program, as El-Souso mentioned, is to activate the technical and cultural abilities of children and adults in a positive way and to enhance their self-confidence. this  would help in reducing their feelings of problems and making them creative people  as well as being part of a team-work through ensuring the opportunity to choose the cultural field that they like.

The program includes life skills activities and events that meet the psychological, educational and recreational needs and the effective communication capabilities. That ease the impacts of war on children and adults.

Activities of the program include interactive theater workshops, storytelling, puppet theater, music, singing, artworks, drawing, Arabic calligraphy, origami, sculpture, handicrafts, collective environmental, linguistic, sports, intellectual, folklore, and awareness sessions.

Haifaa Mafalani