Children traumatized by war move away from Gaza thanks to virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) therapy seeks to improve the psychological well-being of children and can give results more quickly than traditional techniques, say professionals who work with it.

Inside a white tent in Al Zawayda, in the center of the Gaza Strip, five children were chatting animatedly, immersed in a virtual world.

The minors, one of them in a wheelchair, moved their heads to explore the new environment they see through their glasses: landscapes of green pastures, quiet beaches and safe cities.

A boy extended his hands and clapped them together, as if applauding. Another was smiling, with his hand open in front of his face, in an attempt to touch the landscape he was seeing.

One of them started shouting: “Come, come!” because, as he said, a dog was running towards him. There was also one who saw “birds,” he explained to one of the managers.

Also participating in the therapy was Salah Abu Rukab, a 15-year-old boy who suffered a head injury during the war. One of the workers carefully placed the blue visors from the TechMed Gaza program on his head and asked him if he saw anything, while adjusting the device.

The boy told AFP that they “enjoy” this therapy: “it allows us to enter a garden, spaces with animals, and similar experiences,” he noted.

When the worker asked him what he saw, he replied: “Just trees, nothing but trees, grass and flowers.”

– Positive results –

According to Abdala Abu Shamale, a mental health supervisor, VR headsets offer more than just escape.

“With the programmers we were able to design games with therapeutic, preventive and developmental goals that help prepare the child to deal with and manage their life more effectively,” he explained to AFP.

“This method proved to be effective during a year of work with many children, including children amputees due to war, wounded children and those exposed to extremely traumatic events,” he said.

Since October 10, a fragile truce in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has been in force in the territory.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that wounds caused by conflict have a mental impact, and that survivors carry trauma and loss.

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Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for Unicef, the UN children’s agency, told AFP that one million children, that is, “all children in the Gaza Strip, need mental assistance and psychological support after two years of horrible war.”

VR sessions use programs designed specifically for traumatized children, taking into account their physical and psychological condition to help them reconstruct positive perceptions of the world.

According to Shamale, participants in VR sessions “show a very, very strong response and extremely positive results.”

The supervisor indicated that this type of therapy bears fruit more quickly than normal sessions.

“How long the treatment takes for recovery and stability [del paciente] was faster with VR techniques than in regular sessions. In the VR sessions we achieved results in only five to seven sessions,” he stated.