2019 – 2020
MAKAN – Children Play Therapy Initiative
The project MAKAN – Children Play Therapy Initiative with the music teacher Joline Shamieh Khader and the dancer Mohan C. Thomas from Essen has been on the road in Palestine since spring. They move from place to place in the West Bank, first Bethlehem, Hebron and Jericho, and spontaneously organise workshops with children and young people in cooperation with schools, summer camps, orphanages, Bedouin communities and others. These begin with a story read aloud and the children can develop their own interpretations of the story and its progression with drawing, shaping, music and dance.
Play therapy with children in Palestine (Photo: Joline Shamieh Khader)
Background
From Palestine, Joline Shamieh Khader (MAKAN project) wrote an interim report:
„It was crucial for us to proactively involve the children’s will in the decision-making process. Therefore, we asked for feedback from the students and their parents and asked: how can we best help? We were able to reach 410 children, 45 teachers, 12 assistants and 80 parents in three different cities. This was far more than what we had planned.
One of the most important success stories we have experienced is that after just one session, many children have felt that they want to share their lives and problems with us in a fun way.
During each session we try to build a relationship with the children before we do anything. So we start with an ice-breaker game and then we present them with a story and then they respond to it, but not through discussion, but through the following process:
1. we ask the children to draw who they are in this story and why.
2. we ask the children to finish the story in a way they like better.
3. we ask the children to make movements to describe how they felt about the story (usually in a circle).
4. we ask the children to play with sand and create shapes to express their emotions.
5. we print photos and small books for them to draw and write how they can tell their own story to other children.
6. we ask the children to play music with their own bodies, each chair and anything that plays music and sound in the rooms. We end with a lot of noise, but a lot of joy!
At the end of each session the children give a 2 minute presentation, some children tell the story only to me and other children like to share it with all the children. This moment is very emotional as some of the children’s reactions show how vulnerable the children are and how much they have to release.
Why storytelling? Or we call it “Creative Art Therapy” as we have found that storytelling is a good trigger because we can do all the other activities as part of it. Instead of telling a child to draw their fears, the children will do that by telling you about the story. We won’t just tell stories all the time, but we believe it is a great tool to get children to express their problems and be open to other activities.
We see and expect that the impact created within our children will be transferred to other children through our continued efforts and programmes. Every child has a story to tell through play. MAKAN provides the sites where this story can be expressed. Through play.“