Download ReachNow and Adaptation Toolkit

A record 230 million children worldwide are currently living directly with the effects of violence and armed conflict. These children face a growing number of threats to their safety and wellbeing, which can often result in feeling of anxiety, depression and even suicide. Yet most children receive no treatment for their problems. That’s why War Child has developed ReachNow.

How does it work?

ReachNow is developed for trusted and respected community members, without a professional mental health background to support proactive community-level identification of children, adolescents and families in need of mental healthcare to promote help-seeking. The program based around a simple tool - a piece of paper made up of a series of narratives and illustrations paired with a simple decision chart. These illustrated narratives display common examples of children experiencing emotional, behavioural or family-related distress. Each narrative is based on specific cultural idioms of distress to allow for simple identification - and can be adapted to the specific context in which it is used. After a two-day training, community members will be able to use the tool during their daily routine activities to proactively identify children in need of support and guide them to relevant services.

ReachNow is free to use and is currently available in English, Arabic (version developed and evaluated in the occupied Palestinian territory), Tamil (version developed and evaluated in Sri Lanka), Kiswahili, Kinyamwisha, Juba Arabic, Lugbara, Kakwa and Kuku (version developed and evaluated in Uganda), and one in Greek and Italian (collaboration with SOS Children's Villages International).

If the tool is not yet available for your context, a short adaptation process will be required, for which we developed a guidance document.

If you are interested in using the tool, we will require a signed License Agreement which describes the copyright ownership and terms of using the materials.

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