Together with UNICEF for all children!

• Therapeutic recreation sessions:

The State cares for children removed from their families as a consequence of damaging circumstances (abuse, neglect, or other endangerment) by placing them in children’s homes or with foster families. It is especially important for children who went through a tremendous amount of hardship to enjoy events that not only give them positive experiences but also help them cope with life’s challenges. They have an opportunity to visit events – museums, theatre performances, concerts, sports competitions, career guidance lectures – that suit their interests and contribute to their development. They can meet artists, athletes and role models who started out from deep poverty or seemingly hopeless circumstances and made their dreams come true. The events are organized and the children are accompanied by mentors (psychologists, social workers) who also help children process the experiences offered by the program. This is how an experience may become an integral part of the personality, truly contributing to internal growth. Knowledge, adventures and personal experiences are helpful in all situations, and it is particularly important for disadvantaged children to get to know the greater world, recognize their own possibilities and abilities and get motivated to live a productive, fulfilling life.

• Trauma-focused support:

Besides experiential education, the program also provides trauma-focused support to children; targeted trauma processing takes place in a group setting and during one-on-one sessions. Another goal is to provide adequate training and support to child protection specialists (teachers, child care supervisors etc.) working with the children.

The program was launched in 2018, and by the end of 2019 it provided 3-4 modular adventure programs each month to more than 200 children from six state-operated facilities. This means 48 therapeutic recreation sessions per group. The same expert team works with a group of 15-20 children, which allows for the monitoring of children’s interests and assessing the impact of the program through professional tools. By increasing the scope of sponsors, the program could offer even more colorful and enriching experiences and developments.

The program continues even in the pandemic situation. It was predictable that children’s existing mental problems may exacerbate during the pandemic and indeed, the feeling of uncertainty, isolation, and the lack of external social relationships and programs have all contributed to this.

Although the adventure programs planned for this period had to be cancelled, UNICEF’s mentors spent 20 digital hours each month with the children, boosting their spirits through thematic conversations and online team-building games, while group sessions also continued. External experiences were replaced by online check-ins by celebrities, who perked up the depressing period of the lockdown with personalized messages and joint online programs.

Educators sent online game sets and useful movie recommendations from a child protection aspect, which were supplemented by a set of recommended questions to help children process the movies.

UNICEF Hungary assisted the most traumatized children by online therapeutic conversations led by psychologists. After the period of lockdown, conditions were restored, and experience-mentors were able to return to children’s homes in person and deliver full-value productive work. In addition to working together with the children, the organization supported the professionals work in children’s homes and with foster families, offering regular expert supervision to the workers of the institutions. Supervision conversations advised professionals on how to cope with the increased load and how to tackle the stress triggered by the isolation, and on the tools that are available to help children in this particularly difficult time. In addition to all the above, UNICEF Hungary helped participating children’s homes by donating them protective gear, cleaning products, games and IT equipment.