Colorful Hopes for Children

Background

Conflict environment in the Sur district of Diyarbakır caused a psychological devastation for the children in the area. Activities supporting the psychosocial development of children and their families need to be carried out to overcome the devastation, and the social and cultural atmosphere in the region should be supported.

Project Goals

• Living Skills training module will be formulated and applied to 200 children of 10-18 years old.
• Sociocultural workshops will be organized with 200 children according to their interests.
• Informative meetings will be held with the families, on issues such as adolescent development, gender equality, and bullying.
• A Guidance Kit for Volunteers Working with Children will be prepared and a volunteer program will be formed.
• A Commission on Children Rights will be formed within the organization, and children will gain practice in discussing and solving cases on violation of rights.

Project Results

• Life Skills training program, formed of 15 modules in areas such as gender, creativity, communication skills, ecology, human rights, nonviolent communication; was developed and applied to 123 children of 10-18 years old in Diyarbakır, Sur.
• Sociocultural workshops on drama, micro-macrame, photography and arbane were organized and children’s performances were exhibited at the Colorful Hope Festival for Children at the end of the year.
• A Volunteer Handbook on children's rights and principles in working with children was created in order to guide volunteers who will participate in the activities of the association.
• Children wrote and drew a book on human rights and discrimination.
• The mothers of the children who benefited from the activities of the association were trained in reproductive health, adolescence period, sexual abuse, early marriage, family communication and violence.
• Toy library and book library were created. As a result of the book campaign, 1,867 books were donated to the library. In addition, 35 bicycles in the association's library were made available to children.
• Flowers, vegetables and fruits were planted in the center of the association to ensure that children meet with nature and beautify their living spaces.

“The Colorful Hopes Association has taught me how important friendship is and that it is a source that makes us live together. Living Skills training has taught us what we need to do and think during puberty.” Serdar Varlu - Student

“Among all, the workshop which has made the greatest contribution to me was the drama workshop. I discovered my talent thanks to it. I was good at everything I did. We created beautiful work during the arts workshop, which colored me up.” Samet Pekdoğan - Student

“It was beautiful to see that the kids learned how to express their feelings by the end of the Living Skills training they attended for a year. The most important thing is they started caring about themselves, and recognized themselves as individuals.” Düriye Erel - Field Coordinator