Lost Youth and Rescue through UNICEF Training
How many sad social cases do we hear about, «a young man whose body was saturated with white poison, lost his future and found no one to save him», until someone came today to train him to firmly face his reality in making a decision, strengthening his self-confidence, and distinguishing right from wrong, but how? and what are the training methods?
Against that backdrop, it was necessary to stack up projects and workshops with the sole purpose of helping today's generation to become self-sufficient. This is what UNICEF Adolescents and Youth Programme Officer, Abeer Abou Zaki presented when she stated that: «Mental health is part of health skills, and one of the youth’s rights, and it is our commitment to support them psychologically to face difficult decisions by providing them with skills, with the aim to reach a conscious and psychologically immune generation. This is what UNICEF seeks by supporting youth mental health projects in coordination with the Ministries of Education and Health, the United Nations, and relevant associations, because young people aged 10 years and above, the target age group in our programs, need to enhance their self-skills in making the right decision, and when to say «no» when exposed to temptations such as smoking or nargile, which we work to urge them to reject by showing their disadvantages, and focusing on sports for development, social support activities, and skills enhancement to remove negative energy and stimulate positive thinking through the development of self-skills by promoting communication both with the parents or the school administration to understand what the teenager is going through and how to deal with him without discouraging negatives, because at this stage these teenagers suffer from psychological frustration and need to be encouraged, and mentally supported and heard in order to build a solid personality, which helps them express their feelings by providing them with the skills to make the right decision.»
Mental Health Education
On the other hand, since education is the basis for training a student in life, it was necessary to immunize him at a young age so he becomes the decision-maker in any problem he faces. This is what Sonia Najem, Head of the School Health Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, explained in detail when she said that: «The concept of prevention is not only based on scientific information, but on skills. For example, if we tell the student that smoking is harmful, we have to equip him with life skills in order to have a critical thinking through which he can make sure that smoking is not good and must therefore take the right decision, and knows when to say «No», especially if he is blackmailed by his companions: «If you don't smoke nargile like us, you are not in our team». At this point, we have to help him make the right decision, and how to deal with problems in finding solutions through his critical thinking, and thus overstepping the psychological issues in any problem he faces. That's why we focus on life skills training by age, and it's best to start with the youngest from kindergarten and under 10 years of age. It is true that we cannot train him to think critically, but at this age we have to guide him in maintaining his own intimacy in case anyone touches his genitals so he knows how to defend himself, and also we must protect him from psychological problems in the event of sexual assault. Furthermore, if the school doctor examines the students and detects any injury, then we have to verify whether the student was subjected to violence or beaten at home or outside, which makes us resort to the health counselor to immunize him with proper educational guidance.»
Skills within a Strategy
«The core of our work consists of promoting youth mental health» with these words Nadia Badran, Director of the Health Care Association (SIDC) described the supportive activities to immunize young people psychologically and provide them with skills, as means to strengthen them firmly in the face of any obstacle they encounter: «Our work includes a national challenge to highlight, for example, the importance of sports as a way to improve the mental health of young people, especially those who suffer discrimination and stigma, or who suffer from certain health conditions. And we will launch a new project to assist students at schools with a view to their psychological immunization, focusing on the important role of parents and schools in this area. We will also work on a national plan adopted by the Ministry of Health as part of a national mental health strategy, and included in work programs. On the other hand, we have also dedicated a chat activity with young people to talk to them about various topics, including drugs, since they affect mental health.»
Finally, with the importance of immunizing the youth of today with psychological and social skills to face the temptations of life, we hope to find them effective support in word and deed from those involved so that the movement becomes a blessing!