Amal, nine years old, joined the short-term care of SOS Children’s Villages in March 2021. To facilitate her reintegration into her biological family, she visits them during holidays. However, when she visited them this time, she could not go back to the SOS Children’s Village in Rafah because of the continuous bombardment.

Amal went to spend Eid Al-Fitr holidays with her family, but she could not enjoy the end of the fasting month of Ramadan like other children her age around the world because the bombings on Gaza started a few days before the celebration.

Luckily, the area where her family lives was not affected by the attacks, and she and her family are all safe. “When I came back to the village, I told my SOS mother how much I was afraid during the war. I used to scream whenever I heard the sound of explosions,” says Amal. “I am very happy to be back because I feel safe with other children in the village,” she adds.

The team used to call Amal and her family every day during the offensive to maintain the psychological stability she reached. During that period, they realized that she was going through a psychological setback that manifested through various behaviors.

“Amal became verbally and physically unstable towards her siblings. She was also refusing to listen to her father and kept asking to play outside with her cousins despite the bombings”, reports Mutaz Lubbad, psychologist at SOS Children’s Villages Palestine.

Her family, the psychologist and her SOS mother worked all together to help her feel better again. They did so by reminding her of the sessions she had in the village, guiding her family on ways to help children cope in times of crisis, giving her daily home activities such as drawing and listening to music.

“We tried to restore balance and get Amal out of her psychological setback. She is now back in the village, and she is constantly improving,” says Mutaz SOS Children’s Villages Psychologist.