War Will Traumatise
''at least half a million children''
By Naomi Koppel
31 March 2003
More than half a million
traumatised Iraqi children could need psychological counselling or aid
at the end of the war in their country, the UN Childrens Fund
(UNICEF) representative said today.
"There are 5.7 million
primary school age children in Iraq, and we estimate that a minimum
of 10 per cent of those would need support," Carel de Rooy told
reporters.
He gave the example of an
Iraqi colleague he spoke to recently whose 9-year-old son became hysterical
and had to be sedated after a missile fell close to their home.
"We dont know
what we will find when we come back, but we suspect there may be a major
issue of traumatised children," de Rooy said.
UNICEF has provided psychological
care for children in previous conflicts and natural disasters, including
in East Timor, Kosovo, Mozambique and in the aftermath of Hurricane
Mitch in Central America.
The agency trains older children
to work with the traumatised youngsters in a series of carefully controlled
games designed to allow them to come to terms with what has happened
to them and learn to interact with the people around them and concentrate
in school again.
"We can do this on a
large scale if we have the money," de Rooy said. The work costs
around US$20 per child. A smaller number of children are so traumatised
that they need individual counselling.
De Rooy, the UN representative
in Iraq, was evacuated from the country with all other non-Iraqi UN
employees before the start of the war. The agency still has 200 Iraqi
staff working in Iraq, but almost all of them are based in the capital,
Baghdad.