NGO's Project : Save the Children Japan (SCJ)

Providing educational and psychosocial support for children who suffered from the effects of the dzud

Following the summer drought came the dzud, the uniquely Mongolian natural disaster with heavy winter snowfall and temperatures dropping below -40 degrees Celsius. The dzud has affected children in Mongolia in many different ways, including the educational and psychosocial effects that warrant special concern. Children from nomadic families, who had lost their cattle to the dzud and consequently had their livelihood strained, were forced to miss school to take care of the remaining cattle, and the absence made them fall behind in their schoolwork. There were other children who could not return home to their families during winter break because of the dzud, and the psychosocial toll on them as they spent the long harsh winter in boarding houses affected their learning, too. In response to these situations, Save the Children Japan used funding from JPF to distribute heater fuel and winter assistance items to schools and boarding houses, and implemented projects to provide educational and psychosocial support for these children, including remedial classes and what is known as psychosocial first aid (PFA) training.
A total of 79 children from lower elementary grades received psychosocial support from PFA-trained secondary students, and at the end of May 2016, they were asked to express their feelings prior to and after receiving this support. They could choose from three facial expressions: sad face, normal face, and happy face. 20 children (or 25% of the total) chose the sad face prior to receiving support but there were none who chose the sad face afterwards, while 15 (or 19%) had chosen the happy face beforehand and this number grew to 70 (or 89%) afterwards. These findings suggest that the children's psychosocial state had indeed been improved.