For Child Refugees, a Safe Place to Play Can Make All the Difference
Ruaa Ruhmetallah Idris, a 22-year-old Sudanese refugee and social worker at a UNICEF-supported refugee camp in northwestern Ethiopia, shares what it's like to work with children traumatized by war, and the importance of play for a child's mental health.
Ruaa Ruhmetallah Idris, 22, fled Khartoum with her mother and sisters as war engulfed Sudan in 2023. Forced to interrupt her studies at university, she became a social worker with Plan International, a UNICEF partner, after landing at the Ura refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia.
Though difficult, she finds her new mission meaningful. “Most of the children have trauma," Ruaa says. "They remember the sound of gunfire. At night, they start screaming."
In a UNICEF child-friendly space, which operates with funding support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Grundfos Foundation and the LEGO Foundation, Ruaa works with these traumatized children. There are educational and recreational activities and, for those who need it, psychosocial support.
“When they are coming here, we try, as social workers, to make a safe environment for the children,” she says. We are playing with them, we chat with them, speaking with them. Playing is very important for the children ... Playing makes their mental health better."
Watch the video: Inside a UNICEF child-friendly space
Supporting displaced and refugee children and their families is just one aspect of UNICEF's ongoing emergency response for those impacted by Sudan's brutal conflict. Sudan remains the largest child displacement crisis globally, with over 5 million children forcibly displaced.
UNICEF and partners continue to scale up lifesaving support, reaching 2.4 million people with safe water, delivering 12 million vaccines to support national immunization campaigns, and increasing the screening and referral of children with severe acute malnutrition, among other measures.
Learn more about how UNICEF is protecting children caught in conflict.
Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance.
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War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
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