Bestpracticeinpsychosocialworkwithmarginalized populations emphasizes the importance of community participatory approaches. However, the majority of field reports on psychosocial support with marginalized children describe donor initiated projects in which the goal is community empowerment, ownership and control, rather than reports about collaboration with activist movements arising from the communities themselves.

In order to offer psychosocial support forchildren and adolescents in the Darfur refugee camps, UNICEF established a large number of so-called Child Friendly Spaces. This article describes a training for model animators, who later gave an on-the-job training to the animators in the facilities. This had a substantial effect on the quality of the support the animators offered to the children.

Keywords: Child Friendly Spaces, Darfur, corporal punishment, internally displaced persons (IDP) camp

Child Friendly Spaces

After the Madrid March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks, the interplay of politicians, journalists and academicians created an atmosphere of collective trauma. The authors analysed data related to these attacks in a sample of the population of Madrid (N = 503) 18-25 days after the attacks. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was systematically assessed on the basis of a selfadministered interview. The data, however, shows that there is no scientific evidence at all for collective traumatization, or an epidemic of PTSD.

In this article the literature on psychosocial assistance to children in war-affected areas is reviewed. Two main types of interventions are identified: the curative approach and the developmental approach. The effectiveness of each of these approaches is discussed.

Keywords: protective factors, psychosocial wellbeing, social context, curative approach, developmental approach