During the lockdown period in Kurdistan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, STEP was able to help many children and their families at ARC by distributing food, non-food items, and hygiene kits.
Also, due to the closure of schools during the same period, our teams conducted many educational activities for the children. One of these activities involved the creation and distribution of educational leaflets designed for children. As the children were largely idle during the lockdown these were used to help creatively occupy them at home and stimulate them to learn new things.
A drawing competition was another activity we conducted in the refugee camp. We discovered that many of the children had a real gift in art. Neroz, one of the participants, demonstrated her amazing talent through one of her paintings. She commented that "My painting expresses my cousin's journey fighting cancer". She went on to say, "I like coming to the Youth Friendly Space to practice and to have a quiet space to paint, as I cannot find that at home".