Team for Building Life Skills in Lattakia Provides Knowledge, Psychological Support for Children Affected by Crisis

The ongoing crisis in Syria has affected all walks of life in the country and caused suffering to all categories of the Syrian society, particularly children who are the major victims of this crisis. However, the Syrian government in cooperation with the establishments of local community,  has been keen on drawing up and implementing programs aiming to provide as much support as possible to affected children.

The Culture Team for Building Life Skills in Lattakia is an example of the government’s support initiatives that seek alleviating children’s suffering, meeting their needs and building their abilities.

 To shed light on the team’s goals and activities, the Syria Times  e-newspaper interviewed Mrs. Aamal Tobal, Head of the Culture Team for Building Life Skills in Lattakia.

She said that the team was firstly formed in 2012 by the Child Culture Directorate of the Culture Ministry under the name “the Culture Team for Knowledge and Psychological Support” with the purpose of helping displaced citizens who fled the atrocities of terrorist groups in several Syrian provinces and came to Lattakia.  The team sought providing help for the families affected by the ongoing crisis in Syria, particularly children.

The step came in the light of the ongoing crisis Syria has been witnessing  and in completion of the efforts exerted by state’s sectors and local community’s establishments to help Syrian families affected by terrorism, especially  the children of martyrs and of the kidnapped and displaced people in addition to those staying in makeshift housing centers.

The Culture Team for Building Life Skills, according to Mrs. Tobal, has adopted a comprehensive, interactive, intensified and educational program to meet the needs of children of all age categories.

She added this program aims at ensuring benefit and entertainment together, treating the children’s psychological conditions through art and playing, enhancing cooperation among children, reducing the negative impacts of Syria’s ongoing crisis on the children’s feelings and thoughts as well as motivating the children to use their skills fully and effectively and promoting their responsibility towards themselves, their families and their homeland.

Mrs. Tobal pointed out that the Ministry of Culture constantly holds annual exhibitions and competitions for the martyrs’ children in the field of drawing, calligraphy, poetry, novels, and photography after which the winners are honored  by the culture minister.

She stressed that the Culture Team for Building Life Skills spares no effort to take part actively in competitions, exhibitions, and other activities, making use of the understanding memorandum signed with the Ministry of education. It has carried out workshops and training courses covering different domains.

Mrs. Tobal highly appreciated the key and effective role of the team’s members in encouraging children to study through intellectual activities that consolidate self-confidence and raise their awareness. The team is also keen on enhancing  cooperation with a number of societies, commissions and organizations to carry out more activities and benefit from the up-to-date theories in boosting the culture on learning through playing and psychological treatment through art.

Interviewed by Rawaa Ghanam