• “When designing physical activity interventions for children, this study showed that individualized- or class- wide interventions had the greatest effect on children’s mental health. When the intervention was led by teachers, researchers, or PE specialists, children showed the significant reduction in mental health problems through physical activity” (Ahn and Fedwa, 2011, p. 394).

The popularity of football (soccer) throughout the inhabitants of Za’atari is evident throughout both the boys and girls, as highlighted in Clouds Over Sidra by Chris Milk, a brilliant virtual reality film which follows a day in the life of Sidra, a 12 year old Syrian refugee living in Za’atari.

“Several donors, such as the Asian Football Development Project and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), provide enriching activities for residents, such as football, which has successfully brought residents together” (Ledwith, 2014, p. 11). “Volunteers from the Jordan women’s national team, as well as donors from the United Kingdom and South Korea, have helped bring community-building football resources to the camp” (Ledwith, 2014, p. 36).

Music Therapy: “is the combination of listening, playing, writing, recording, movement and dance designed to address a client’s needs. Participants do not need to have any prior music training as the process of making music is more important than performance” (Scroope and Signorelli, n.d., p. 36). “An advantage of music therapy is that it is an inherently nonthreatening and inviting medium. It offers a child a safe haven from which to explore feelings, behaviors and issues ranging from self-esteem to severe emotional dysregulation. Music therapy techniques can be designed to address more complex issues such as grief, abandonment or deeply conflicted emotions” (Hussey, 2003, n.p).

Acting/Performing: “Theatre is one of the most important aspects of ‘cultural relief’ for refugees and victims of trauma, providing them with hope for the future and helping improve their psychological state” (Forum on Culture and Humanitarian Relief, 2015). Experts on trauma and psychological relief, staff and volunteers of humanitarian organisations and practitioners from Jordan and surrounding regions met in October 2015 to discuss the roles of drama therapy and potentially films for trauma relief.

Although many parents were initially hesitant about the value of theatre for their children “parents later on became happy to see their children getting excited about the performance and showing improvements in their psychological state. The parents were transformed from people striving to handle the burden of displacement into directors watching the development of their children’s performances. Theatre benefits not only participants but also their families,” Nawar Bulbul (Syrian actor and director).

External Agencies Training Local Health Providers: Agencies have been sporadically involved in raising funds in order to take experts to Za’atari in order to train local health providers in appropriate trauma treatments. One such agency, Common Bond Institute, has been involved in raising funds for a series of trips to Za’atari based on their Catastrophic Trauma Recovery (CTR) training and treatment model designed to provide:

• A comprehensive, integrated, interdisciplinary, and permanent disaster health care service
• An on-going professional and interdisciplinary trauma treatment training program
• An innovative, adaptable, and continually developing treatment and training model that can be replicated in other regions of conflict
• A strategic and long term investment in advancing and developing the future local human service system
• A major investment in the local academic system
• A substantial and growing vocational benefit
• Research and Analysis