Partnership working to develop services for child refugees

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a partnership project between three organisations, a UK-based charity who’s primary purpose is supporting children in war zones, Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Uganda and Animation Therapy Ltd, to deliver a training programme for staff working with hard-to-engage children in two refugee settlements in northern Uganda. It begins with an introduction to the current global refugee crisis, including the situation in Southern Africa. An account is given of how the creative partnership came about, and its purpose. The training project is described, highlighting the roles of the two occupational therapists involved. The paper ends with some lessons learned from the project and their implications for occupational therapy education and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugees
• re-animation approach^TM
• staff development

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr Jennifer Creek for her helpful editing of this paper.