Attensi offers helping hand to Ukraine’s child refugees

Attensi is reaching out a helping hand to child victims of the war in Ukraine.

We are extending a project which has already successfully supported youngsters hurt and displaced by Syria’s civil war to victims of the conflict in Eastern Europe.

Helping Hand is a digital role-playing game, similar to those we create for businesses to train their teams around the world. It takes players through a series of life-like scenarios in a computer game-style setting and offers them a range of responses to choose from.

The game is designed to reinforce positive decision-making and to strengthen adolescents’ resolve to ask for help when they need it.

The gamified simulation training is specifically useful in helping teenagers deal with a range of issues, including suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression.

Helping Hand has already helped 2,000 Syrian teenagers in camps in Central Beqaa, Lebanon. They all said that the game made them feel better and helped them make better sense of their world. 28% of the adolescents reported what WHO classifies as ‘normal wellbeing’ before playing the game, while 99% reported normal wellbeing 10 weeks on.

Now the solution is working for troubled Ukrainians too.

According to UNICEF there are 3m displaced children inside Ukraine, and over 2.2m have found a haven in other countries. Almost two out of every three children have been forced out of their homes.

Many have seen sights no child should ever witness – people killed and injured, homes destroyed, schools attacked, the uncertainty of life as a fugitive from the only place they have ever known.

Attensi’s involvement with Helping Hand began when Bjarne Johnson, our CCO Norway and EU, was moved by the plight of the Syrian children he saw on the TV news.

Bjarne knew that Attensi could help, and he contacted clinical psychologist Dr Solfrid Raknes, who pioneered the Psychological First Aid Kit in Lebanon, where the concept of simulation therapy has been running for years.

The result was the creation of the Helping Hand app, developed alongside partners including the publishing firm Gyldendal, the Norwegian Government, Dr Raknes and aid agencies.

Now after working successfully with aid groups in Syria, Attensi is using funding from Innovation Norway to bring the technology to children affected by the Ukrainian conflict.

Social aid workers will invite affected children to come and work through the app on portable devices.

Although the original version was created in Arabic, the app is now available in multiple languages including Ukrainian, English, French, and Norwegian. It is free to download from the Apple Store and Google Play.