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Reaching out to families living through war

08 May 2015

University holds event to support youngsters and parents in Syria

Picture by Year 9 child in Qah Refugee Camp, Syria

The University is hosting an exhibition to support children and families affected by the war in Syria.

The event will show through film, children’s drawings, photographs and quotations from interviews with parents what it is like for children growing up in the Syrian conflict and the hardships of being a parent in this context.

Based on research the University’s Parenting and Families Research Group has conducted with families on the Syrian-Turkish border and in the UK, it will also show how parents cope to protect themselves and their children as best they can and ways that families can be supported to build resilience and psychological wellbeing.

Children accompanied by an adult are welcome to the event – on Thursday, 4 June, the UN's International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression – and it will include children’s activities such as painting, drawing and letter writing with the opportunity for pictures and letters to be sent after the exhibition to displaced children living in towns in neighbouring countries to Syria and in refugee camps on the Syrian-Turkish border.

‘Syria: Reaching Out to Children and Parents of War’, organised by the School of Psychological Sciences group in partnership with humanitarian non-governmental organisation Watan, will be held at z-arts, 335 Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester, M15 57A, from Thursday, 4 June until Saturday, 6 June 2015.

Research associate Kim Cartwright said: “Children remain the most vulnerable victims in war. Parents play an essential role in protecting children in this context. Effectively fulfilling this role presents enormous challenges. Most of us find it almost impossible to imagine what it is like for children and their parents to live through war.

“We look forward to seeing you there, to support the children and their families living through war.”

Further information

For more information contact Kim Cartwright: