Creative games
542 children participated in creative psychosocial workshop sessions that were led by Serlo psychologists. Each group of approximately 12 children participated 3 times a week during a 2 months period. This intensive approach allowed the psychologist to get to know the children well and to gain their trust and also to create a mutually supportive atmosphere within the group. Workshop activities were adjusted to the age groups and included a combination of creative games (painting, drama, music, storytelling, sports, etc), relaxation games, talking and listening. It turned out that after their initial hesitation most children loved the group sessions and overall gave very positive feedback to the Serlo group leaders.

Parents and caregivers
Special workshops were also organized for parents and caregivers of the children. Each group attended a cycle of 4 sessions. While games and relaxation exercises were also part of these sessions, the main activities were discussing topics related to problems within the family and with their children. The Serlo group leaders suggested different ways of dealing with such problems in order to improve the atmosphere at their home situation, to provide better psychosocial support to their children and last but not least, to take better care of their own psychosocial needs.

Individual counseling sessions
A few of the children attended individual counseling sessions with the Serlo psychologists. Counseling was also offered to parents of the children, allowing discussing both their own problems and the problems they encounter with their children.

Training seminars
The Serlo team also organized two training seminars for 174 teachers of the target schools. Topics were determined after discussing with the teachers what they felt their needs were. The topics identified included: conflicts within the school and ways of improving relations among school staff; conflicts between teachers and pupils and ways of dealing with this; working with ‘difficult’ and ‘lazy’ children; working with teenagers; stress of teachers. The training started with addressing the teachers’ own stress and frustrations through a combination of group discussions and relaxation games. This allowed teachers to be more open to treat more difficult topics that sometimes required them to leave certain set attitudes and pedagogical habits. The trainers encouraged teachers to look at conflict situations with children from different perspectives. They explained that many problems are not only to be solved by getting children to change their behavior but by change of behavior by themselves too and by interaction with the children. Teachers expressed great satisfaction with the trainings and requested the Serlo team to continue with similar training seminars in the future.

Telephone hotline
A telephone hotline was set up for children and adults to talk anonymously and for free to a psychologist. This way they would be allowed access to advice and support in dealing with their problems. Unfortunately, the cultural barriers of talking about personal problems kept people from calling the telephone line. A lesson learned is that an assessment beforehand should help avoid starting up initiatives that do not generate the expected results.

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