In Kaya, displaced children are back in the mood for playing
The ongoing crisis in Burkina Faso has forced tens of thousands of children out of their homes. Built by UNICEF, the “Child Friendly Spaces” allow them to regain a sense of security, a daily routine adapted to their age, and access psychosocial support.
Under a tent, or the shade of a tree, stories are told, one after the other. Fatoumata*, 14, was in the field when the “gunmen” arrived. “Our parents yelled at us to run. I ran away, without my dad, and we walked for days.”
The family finally reached Arbinda, in the northern region of Sahel but the rumor was saying that “they were coming”. Fatoumata and her family were on the run again, before arriving in Kaya, 158 km away from Arbinda. In a few months, the population of this city in the Centre-Nord region has more than doubled due to the influx of displaced people.
Fatoumata represses a sob as her farming family no longer has any source of income, and is now entirely depending on humanitarian aid. “It’s hard here, everything is expensive. We have to pay for water, for firewood.” She has only one wish, “to go home.”
Among the tens of thousands of internally displaced people who found shelter in the city of Kaya, an estimated 43% are school-age children.
They rushed off, left everything behind. Their home, their fields, their daily lives. In Kaya, they live day-to-day, without any certainty about their future. “Often, parents themselves find it too difficult to explain the situation to their children,” says Lamine Tamboura, a psychologist at the Child Friendly Space built by UNICEF. With other animators and psychologists, he supports displaced children who come every day to seek a little bit of joy in these recreational spaces.
“When kids are here, they feel safe. This allows each child to express himself or herself freely.”
Yéri Doli, a psychologist in the Child Friendly Space, continues: “therapy is not only practiced following the standard model: using games, children externalize what they have been through. We do not priviledge one-on-one interviews as they feel more comfortable to open up when there are other children. »
Families are arriving in Kaya traumatized by what they have seen and exhausted by the long walk. Some children are not staying with their parents but in families they do not know. “All the children here have experienced trauma in some way. A child who leaves home for an unknown destination in such circumstances is already traumatized. But depending on his personality, the child reacts differently”, explains Lamine Tamboura.
Among the activities offered to children are drawing sessions. Not only recreational, the exploratory drawings reflect the child’s inner world.
“We see drawings with weapons, for example. Other signs are clear: when the child is traumatized, he or she stands apart. Progressive participation in social games shows that the child is recovering.”
Like so many other children here, Maimouna* has witnessed family members being killed. “We identified it during a group session. She couldn’t stop crying,” says Yéri. The one-on-one work sessions allowed her to externalize what she had experienced, and its consequences: refusal to eat, nightmares, recurring headaches… “ She first tended to isolate herself but is now gradually integrating the group”,the psychologist says.
“The work is critical, because it is necessary to bring these children to understand and to accept what has happened to them, and to live with this evil.”
Yéri’s voice is covered by the noise of the children playing football, the sound of drums, the kids’ laugher while they’re pushing each other for a space on the slide. The young woman finds a comforting satisfaction to see these children who, day after day, are recovering their smiles and their taste for playing.
In Burkina Faso, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly due to the escalation of violence and insecurity. In a few months, the number of internally displaced people has increased from 60,171 in January 2019 to nearly 500,000 in October 2019 and 48% of them are displaced are children. 1,784 schools have closed, depriving 245,625 children of education. Access to health services has also deteriorated : 78 health facilities remain closed and 129 others only provide minimum services, depriving 1,278,655 people of health care.
*The names have been changed.
