The paper introduced Aangan, a project focussing on children's emotional health in Pakistan, as part of Rozan, an NGO. As part of Aangan's life skills work, it developed and implemented a project with a children's institution, an orphanage for children who had been orphaned, abandoned or separated from their families. Based on concepts of emotional intelligence (EQ), self-awareness, life skills and vulnerability, the project aimed to support resident children's development and wellbeing through assisting the management to establish systems and policies, sensitising its staff to children's emotional health issues and training them to run group sessions with children. The project ran as three phases: sensitisation workshops; building staff capacity; and project assessment. The project brought out a range of issues such as abuse, trauma, anger, anxiety, behavioural difficulties, etc. The feedback received regarding the workshops, training and groups was very positive, and assessments showed promising trends.
Child abuse, Child sexual abuse, Pakistan, Institutionalised children, Orphanage, Children's emotional health, Children's life skills
