- Israel

One Year Later: Hibuki Prove Cathartic for Traumatized Children in Israel

Tens of thousands of Israelis still feel the residual impact of the Second Lebanon War one year after the first Hezbollah Katyusha missiles hit the northern Galilee. With funding from UJC’s Israel Emergency Campaign and in partnership with the Israeli government, JDC’s programs continue to address the heightened needs of Israel’s most vulnerable citizens—children, the elderly, immigrants and people with disabilities—striving to recover in the north and those currently living under fire in Sderot and the Gaza border region.

When Katyusha missiles began falling in northern Israel last summer, thousands of families spent the summer vacation in their neighborhood bomb shelters, leaving children frightened and bewildered by the barrage of rockets.

Recognizing the need to help these children, a national corps of specially trained school psychologists and counselors were mobilized to assess and treat their trauma. Many gave up their vacations with their own children to help needy youngsters in Israel's north.

This quick draft of professionals was made possible by cooperation between Ashalim—the Association of Planning & Development of Services for Children and Youth at Risk and their Families: a partnership of the Israeli government, JDC and UJA-Federation of New York—and Shefi (an acronym for school psychological unit) the Ministry of Education’s Psychological Counseling Services.

While Ashalim brought its expertise in working with children at risk to train the psychologists for the task, as Yochi Siman Tov, the head of Shefi’s emergency programs says, the summer’s war in the north was a "natural extension" of the unit’s regular work.

"Even though it was the summer, our psychologists still felt they had to be responsive to their students," she says. "Teachers were in touch with students, and as the war continued, we created hotlines for the kids in the shelters, but they didn’t use them."

Instead, the professionals, wearing tee shirts that identified them as psychologists and counselors, gave up their vacations and traveled around the country, from the northern bomb shelters to the tent camp housing thousands of families on the Nitzanim beach.

It was while working 14-hour days at the tent camp that the psychologists realized they needed a more specific plan for helping children deal with their fright and confusion.

With guidance from psychology experts at Tel Aviv University, Ashalim introduced Hibuki, loosely translated as "Huggy Bear." This kindergarten-based intervention program aims to reduce children’s stress by making the child responsible for Hibuki, a stuffed animal with Velcro strips on its long arms, which can ‘hug’ anyone in need. The children were told that their own Hibuki is scared and needs tender loving care. As each child developed a relationship with the stuffed animal, and their parents helped advise them how to care for him, they all engaged in self-therapy, regaining their own sense of confidence and control.

"When the child becomes the caretaker, they are less scared," says Siman Tov. "The child becomes the caretaker of the stuffed animal. They understand that Hibuki is usually happy, but is sad now because of what’s been happening."

By the end of the war, Ashalim had distributed 2,400 Hibuki stuffed animals throughout the north. Most of the work was done with kindergartens in Akko, Nahariya, Carmiel, Tsfat and the Druze village of Mrar, where children were given the stuffed animals and then followed up with several weeks later to see how the bear helped to alleviate their stress.

Ashalim is now bringing 5,000 more Hibuki stuffed animals to Sderot, where children have been traumatized by the ongoing barrage of Qassam missiles. Generous funding from the UJC Israel Emergency Campaign will enable the program to continue for the long term and help assuage the trauma that tens of thousands of children in Israel are still experiencing, particularly in the north and in Sderot and the Gaza border region.

Cooperation will continue with Shefi, which has also been conducting group therapy with children in schools up north and down south, using art and music therapy at least once a week for what Siman Tov hopes will be an extended period of time.

"When you go to Sderot and even up north, where it seems okay now, you start talking to people and you understand that it’s not so simple," Siman says. "People are still worried and need help, and that’s not surprising."

July 2007