On Saturday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organized a “Community Mental Health Intervention” in BeitFajjar in the “Municipality Hall”, with the support of the BeitFajjar municipality,Palestinian Red Crescent volunteers, Municipality Rehabilitation Society Center, parents council and the local institution and the general audience from BeitFajjar community.

A total of 150 people participated on the event, among which, 70 were minors under 12 years, and 80 were adolescent and adults over 12 years.

During the event, which lasted from 2:30 to 4:30pm, MSF projected a video about its project on Mental Health, in Hebron Governorate.  After that, it took place a puppet play, created in collaboration with Yes Theatre, with the name “Let’s think together”.

The play treats topics related to negative effects on the mental health of Palestinian population, living under occupation.

 

To finalize, an activity in groups was held regarding to resilience methods towards stressful situations. These activities were addressed only to adult audience (>12 years).

Children participated of psychosocial games and enjoyed recreational activities with drawing materials and face paintings.

 

Through these activities, MSF is assisting the population of the occupied West Bank to early identification of mental health disorders, in order to develop a higher resilience capacity through coping mechanisms.

The attendees expressed their appreciation of the event and the activities in it, saying that they would like to have more activities this kind here in BeitFajjar.

 

 “Sometime we had this kind of experiences and we feel just like the puppets said. It is good to have help when we feel stressed, sad or angry…”one of the attendees said. 

 “It is good that MSF does group interventions like the one we had today, because it is good to learn about this,” they concluded. 

Source:PNN