Kyrgyz Children’s Story: When Healing Looks Like a Drawing
Kyrgyz Children’s Story: When Healing Looks Like a Drawing
Kyrgyz Children's Story:
When Healing Looks Like a Drawing
Location
Kyrgyzstan
Focus
Mental Health and Psycho Social Support
IMplemented by
SOS Children's Village Kyrgyzstan
Through GCERF-supported MHPSS activities implemented by SOS Children’s Village in Kyrgyzstan, returning children from Northeast Syria are provided with safe spaces to express emotions, strengthen resilience, and rebuild a sense of belonging through creative approaches such as art-based therapy.
In Kyrgyzstan, during a psychosocial and mental health support (MHPSS) activity organised by GCERF’s grantee SOS Children’s Village, a group of children returning from Northeast Syria gathered in a room with paper and colored pencils.
Instead of being asked questions about their past or to complete forms, they were given a simple instruction:
Draw what is in your heart. Draw what makes you feel safe. Draw your story.”
— Activity Facilitator, SOS Children’s Villages
Some children hesitated at first, staring at the blank page. Others began immediately. Gradually, the room filled with drawings, as silence gave way to focus, movement, and colour.
For children who have experienced conflict, displacement, separation, and loss, expressing emotions in words is often difficult. Creating safe and structured spaces where they can communicate at their own pace is therefore an essential part of psychosocial support and recovery.
Through its MHPSS activities, SOS Children’s Village works with returning children and families to support emotional wellbeing, strengthen resilience, and help them rebuild a sense of safety and belonging. In this setting, the drawings became a language of their own.
One 15-year-old boy drew a heart. At first glance, it appeared dark and heavy. But on closer look, small green roots were growing from within it. He later told the team:
What happened to me is part of my story. But it is not the end of my story.”
— 15-year old boy, Activity Participant
Another boy drew a bridge between two landscapes: one marked by ruins and grey skies, the other by children playing, a school, and sunlight. The bridge represented a path from a difficult past toward a more hopeful future.
A 13-year-old girl painted waterfalls under moonlight and a quiet landscape. She described it simply as a place where she feels calm.
Together, these drawings showed how structured psychosocial activities can help children express emotions they cannot easily put into words, while gradually supporting reflection, trust, and recovery. This experience reflects how GCERF and partners like SOS Children’s Village support children in their journey of recovery, helping them rebuild trust, express themselves, and reconnect with a sense of stability and hope for the future.