Iraq’s war-damaged children need specialist help to heal their trauma | Kevin Watkins

Billions goes on rebuilding Mosul’s shattered infrastructure. But what about the thousands of psychologically shattered children?

Rahaf, aged 10, from west Mosul in Iraq, can’t tell you what caused the war that left her an orphan, killed her friends and robbed her of her childhood. But she can give you a child’s-eye view of the collective trauma, grief and loss that weigh on children across her devastated city. “I wake up and I witness war every day. I don’t want to go through another war,” she says.

Related: ‘Scarred and broken’: children escaping Isis in Mosul suffer waking nightmares

Related: 'His death kills me each day': Mosul residents return home – to what?

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OHOCaO