Child friendly spaces

When homes are destroyed, families separated and familiar places left behind (sometimes forever) making a space for children to be children is incredibly important.

Emergency evaluation shelters can be unfamiliar and unsettling places for children and with parents often having to stand in lengthy lines to apply for emergency assistance or spending considerable time sourcing items for their families, ensuring children have access to learning materials, toys and safe places to play can help make the experience a little bit easier.

Whether it’s after a natural disaster or in a refugee camp, Save the Children makes assessments and establishes child friendly spaces when they are needed.

The spaces are designed to keep children safe from harm and allow them to play, socialise and begin to recover from the catastrophic upheavals that they may be experiencing in their lives. They provide children with a sense of normality, despite ongoing disruption and changes around them.

We know that children are better able to cope in and after an emergency if structure and routine can be created.

Most recently, we have created child friendly spaces after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the floods in Pakistan, the earthquake in Haiti, and the conflict in Kyrgyzstan.

These designated spaces work because they help keep children safe, can be used as a place to relay important information in regards to health and safety and minimise the stresses experienced by children in emergencies.

Often, it’s the simplest of measures that are the most effective.