1. Case-study No. & Title:
174. Therapeutic Activities in Schools for Refugee Children in Slovenia (1992-1995)

Keywords

w	Participation
w	Human capacity building
w	Education
w	Facilitation
w	Conflict resolution
w	Communication
w	Co-existence
w	Co-operation
w	Partnership

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Simona Zavratnik Zimic

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Simona Zavratnik Zimic
Institute for Ethnic Studies
Erjavcčeva 26
SI-1000 Ljubljana

in cooperation with:
dr. Anica Mikuš Kos (President of the Slovene Philantropy) and Vahida Huzejrović
Slovene Philantropy
Levstikova 22
SI-1000 Ljubljana

Tel.: +386 1 2510 228, 1 425 58 71
Fax: +386 1 421 26 05
E-mail: anica.kos@guest.arnes.si

2.3 Date recorded
January 2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:

Defining good practice in therapeutic activities in schools for refugee children in Slovenia (from 1992 to 1995)

w	The project provided psycho-social support to refugee children and supported their education;
w	It worked to prevent the educational failure of refugee children;
w	It prepared children for successful education in Slovene primary and secondary schools;
w	It contributed to the continuation of successful education and to the successful integration of refugee children from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Slovene schools and society;
w	It was carried out by refugees (teachers) who were empowered through the activities of the program;
w	At the international level, it served as a model of child mental health protection for children affected by war.

3.2 Location:
The project was carried out in refugee centres and schools all over Slovenia. The aim was to develop a specific model of psychological help to refugee children who happened to be in Slovenia.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Broadly defined, the target groups were refugee children in exile countries and children affected by war and remaining in their home countries.

In case of Slovenia the target group was refugee children from war areas of former Yugoslavia who came to Slovenia and were integrated into the Slovenian educational system – i.e. into Slovene primary and secondary schools.

The beneficiaries of the project were school-age refugee children, aged from 7-15, who were in Slovenia in 1992.

The project proved to be a statement of good practice and later on was used in Bosnia, in Kosovo, Chechnya, and Inghuseti.

3.4 Major Actors Involved:

w	Local government
w	Local Government
w	Local NGO
w	Government Ministry
w	Public Institution
w	International NGO

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors:
The sponsors who made the work possible were mainly NGOs: Open Society Fund, Fondation de France, Hacin Family Foundation, Fluchtlings Hilfe Direkt, UNICEF and ONE (Office de la Naissance et de l’Enfance).

3.6 Timeframe:
The initiative was first proposed by The Consulting Centre for Children, Adolescents and Parents in Ljubljana, in the year 1992, when mass influx of refugees arrived to Slovenia. The connections between refugee schools and mental health workers were established immediately and were put in practice straight away. Later on, when the program proved to be effective, it was applied in an international context (Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Ingusheti). In this sense the program is still continuing.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy:
The program was carried out within the framework of the NGOs (national and international) and in co-operation with schools at the local or national level (Ministry for Education and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia). The program was a good example of productive co-operation between the governmental sector (the school system) and NGOs.

4. Good Practice Description
Background
In 1992, about 70,000 refugees arrived in Slovenia. Half of the total number of the refugees were children. The Consulting Centre for Children, Adolescents, and Parents in Ljubljana wanted to offer psycho-social help to a large number of traumatised children. It became obvious that the individual help to individual children would be but a drop in the sea. The problem was not the absence of experts to provide children with the professional help, but that that refugees did not want that kind of help.

As soon as refugees arrived the Ministry for Education and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia organised primary schools for refugee children. The teachers who worked in the schools were refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On of the most suitable strategies, which could be used to protect and promote the mental of all children, was the implementation of the therapeutic approaches in the school’s activities. Therefore, a model of education and empowerment was developed for Bosnian teachers who worked in schools for refugee children from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The model proved to be efficient and later on was used in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Ingusheti.

Project goals were to:

w	Reduce the suffering of children affected by the war;
w	Provide children with a better everyday life (schools, kindergartens) and as many leisure-time activities as possible, for example language courses;
w	Provide children with skills to face and overcome traumas, losses, stress and troubles connected to the life in exile;
w	Introduce psycho-social help and support in regular primary school activities, and at the same time provide all children aged from 7-15 with psycho-social support in the country of exile;
w	Train teachers who were also refugees to provide psycho-social help to children affected by the war;
w	Carry out regular seminars and other forms of education and training for all teachers in schools for refugee children. The aim of the meetings was to train teachers to be able to provide psycho-social help to children, to create a pleasant psycho-social climate in the classroom, to co-operate with parents, etc. The more important component of the seminar was psycho-social help to teachers themselves, and their empowerment.
w	Provide the teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina with knowledge and skills, that they could use when repatriated;
w	Engagement of the Slovene volunteers to provide learning assistance and to befriend child refugees. Volunteers presented an inter-ethnic bridge between Bosnians and Slovenes. They recognised traumas in refugees and the ways refugees coped with them, they were telling people about the positive aspects of working with refugees, but at the same time they gave the refugees a message about the goodwill of people in Slovenia and their readiness to help people in need;
w	Prepare refugee children to enter Slovene schools and to continue education in Slovene primary and secondary schools

‘What we did and how we did work?’
The work of the mobile psycho-pedagocical team started with the agreement with the Ministry of Education and Sport, which organised schools for the children from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The team offered to participate as a psycho-pedagocical team in the schools’ work. At the beginning of the school year the Ministry organised introductory courses for teachers and the mental health team became involved in these courses at this point. The program comprised:

-	work with teachers;
-	work with parents;
-	work with children.

The team performing these functions was composed of pedagogues, special education teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists. The aim was to reach all the teachers working in the schools for the children from Bosnia and Herzegovina and, thus, indirectly all school children and their parents (the latter would then be able to help many pre-school children and adolescents living in Slovenia as well).

As soon as the school started the team began visiting refugee centres and schools all over Slovenia. First they held only courses and workshops. The next round of visits made it clear that the needs were far greater. Along with courses and workshops they started talking with parents at parents’ meetings. The teachers wanted to have consultations for individual children and examinations of the children who had learning difficulties and behaviour problems, those who were too restless or unable to communicate, and those who displayed apathy or grief.

By the end of the school year 1992/93 the mobile psychological team was engaged in:

-	co-operation and work with teachers: courses, workshops and consultations;
-	work with parents: parents’ meetings, work in small groups;
-	work with groups of children: therapeutic work;
-	work with individual children: diagnostic work, counselling, therapy, psychotherapy;
-	raising money for trips and other leisure-time activities (the organisation sponsoring many trips and other out of school activities was Cause Commune from Belgium. These activities were of great importance to the wellbeing of the children and the continued motivation of the schools).

In working with teachers it was found that they needed help in two areas, namely training in pedagogy and psychology. They lacked pedagogical knowledge since about 40 per cent of the teachers had not received any pedagogical training. The main topics of the courses and workshops for the teachers were:

-	pedagogical work in school under special circumstances;
-	the characteristics of educational provision for refugee children;
-	how to overcome stress and adjustment problems;
-	the traumatised child;
-	how to teach the children to read and write.

Some thoughts about the project
The project proved to be a statement of good practice and later on it was used in Bosnia, in Kosovo, Chechnya, and Inghuseti. The schools for refugee children from Bosnia and Herzegovina during the first year of the war represents the most valuable present the children were given by Slovenia and by their teachers. The moral, humane and educational value of the initiative must be emphasised. A lot of work has been done by the officials of the Ministry of Education and Sport, by the members of local authorities, who were responsible for making the refugee school in their locality operational, by many Slovene organisations that helped the schools, and above all by the teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina who made the schools for refugee children possible.

The Slovenian experience shows that refugee children in exile function very well in a school setting, in spite of the tragic events they have experienced, in spite of all the grief, emotional trauma and adverse living conditions.

An important point in the evaluation of the project has been emphasised by dr Anica Mikuš Kos, the President of Slovene Philanthropy: ‘It became obvious that the schools which had won the support of or were co-operating with the local Slovene institutions worked best. It can be maintained that the success of the refugee school greatly reflected the quality of cooperation with the Slovene environment. Many Slovenes have made it possible for the school to expand its program with their personal involvement, and helped the teachers with both financial and moral support’.