Sport as a post-disaster psychosocial intervention in Bam, Iran

Abstract

In the field of humanitarian assistance, sport and play have recently gained attention as innovative instruments to support a psychosocial rehabilitation process in post-disaster and post-conflict situations. The project ‘Sport and play for traumatized children and youth’, implemented by the Swiss Academy for Development after the earthquake in Bam, Iran, was a pilot project conducted in this field. This essay discusses the experiences gained and lessons learnt from the project, indicating the advantages and limitations of using sport and play as tools to support psychosocial rehabilitation in a post-disaster situation. Positive effects of the project were identified on both group and individual levels, but they cannot be attributed to the use of sport alone. The findings rather suggest that the coaches and their efforts to create a supportive environment have played a crucial role for the success of the project.

Notes

¹ This article is adapted from the SAD report Sport and Play for Traumatized Children and Youth: An Assessment of a Pilot Project in Bam, Iran by the author.

² See Ehrenreich, Coping with Disasters, 5.

³ ICSSPE, Sport and Physical Activity, 62.

⁴ Ehrenreich, Coping with Disasters, 13.

⁵ World Health Organization (WHO), International Classification of Diseases, 4.

⁶ Luthar, Cicchetti and Becker, ‘The Construct of Resilience’, 543–62.

⁷ ICSSPE, Sport and Physical Activity, 75.

⁸ Henley, Helping Children Overcome Disaster Trauma, 6.

⁹ Henley, Helping Children Overcome Disaster Trauma, 9.

¹⁰ However, it must be noted that psychosocial interventions in the context of a humanitarian crisis often need to be set up quickly and under difficult circumstances. Planning and implementing them in a contextually adapted way is therefore often a big challenge and unfortunately not very well done. See Henley, Helping Children Overcome Disaster Trauma, 10.

¹¹ Henley and Colliard, ‘Input Paper’, 7.

¹² For an overview of the actors involved in such sport programmes see: Gschwend and Selvaraju, Psycho-Social Sport Programmes.

¹³ See the publications of Henley, Colliard and ICSSPE in the references.

¹⁴ The evaluations from Colliard of the psychosocial programmes of Terre des Hommes in Bam and Sri Lanka are favourable exceptions (see references).

¹⁵ Quoted passages from the interviews retain the original wording of the local project manager's translation.

¹⁶ The results of this research are not yet published. For an interim report see Meier, Gender Equity.

¹⁷ See Ehrenreich, Coping with Disasters, 27.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valeria Kunz

1