Rethinking Resilience for Children and Youth in Conflict Zones The Case of Palestine

By

Salwa Massad Palestinian National Institute of Public Health

Rachael Stryker California State University

Sylvie Mansour Clinical Psychologist

Umaiyeh Khammash Juzoor for Health and Social Development

Abstract: 

Approximately one in four children lives in conflict-affected areas around the world and this results in many consequences for their physical and mental health. This paper first provides a brief history of the specific contexts of violence and resistance that children and youth engage with, and in, on a daily basis in Palestine. It then outlines the efforts of one functioning program in the West Bank, the United Nations Community Mental Health Project, which was designed not only to respond to, but mitigate, child and youth mental health problems in the midst of decades of such political violence.