Background In 2016, nearly 370,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, most of them by sea. More than 50% have arrived in Greece and Italy. More than 5,000 migrants and refugees died in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe , mainly through Greece and Italy and for the first month of 2018 almost 500 died. All children fleeing conflict, especially those traveling alone are vulnerable to abuse- sexual and labor exploitation including trafficking, being sold and being coerced into marriage, in their homes, communities, society or in places where migrants and/or refugees reside - including reception centers, refugee camps or informal settlements at source, transit and destination countries. There is an emerging need in understanding the diverse conditions of migration, how they may influence children and what professionals and volunteers can do that effectively positively affect the wellbeing of these families. There is a need to protect and prevent unwanted situations within these families. Ecological-developmental models generally recognize that the parents' and child's experiences shape the course of their social development; but little is known about how key aspects of parental or child-rearing history, including immigration, affect components of social development across children from diverse ethnic groups. There are features of parental migration that are shared across national origin groups that may influence differential outcomes in early childhood. We consider one of these dimensions of immigration, the family- cultural aspects, and its influence on parenting practice and subsequent child social development. Understanding the impact of migration on children's and families within their own community and host country is a multifactorial and transnational issue. It requires considering parents' cultural origins and their migration histories. IENE projects highlighted the need for training of health workers/volunteers on providing culturally competent and compassionate care. To approach the matter holistically multidisciplinary and transnationality are essential elements. The project aims to provide education and training to professionals and volunteers working with migrants and refuges in regards to parenting skills, health care of the family and psychological support. It aims to enable them in providing support, knowledge and empowerment to migrant and refugee parents, which will help them to nurture, protect and educate their children under difficult circumstances. The proposal focuses on expanding the existing Knowledge hub (Khub) (IENE6) for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers (http://ienerefugeehub.eu/). Objectives a) Review of the literature on the needs of migrant and refugee families with children on parenting skills, focusing on factors that provide resilience, as well as those factors that disempower parents and children during refugeedom b) Develop a curriculum for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers, to enable them to provide support, knowledge and skills on parenting and child-family health care needs, under extreme and unique conditions c) Develop bite-size learning units for parents to enable them in improving knowledge in regards to parenting and support of their children and family. d) Provide training for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers e) Use Khub to share stories from professionals regarding their experience and training refugee and migrant families with children on parenting related matters. f) Disseminate the results and the outputs of the project through workshops, webinars, national seminars Target groups: health professionals, volunteers that are working with migrants/refugees; migrant and refugee families and children. It is difficult to estimate the exact number as many products will be used on line; about 200 professionals will be trained, 500 will visit Khub learning tools; 200 stakeholders/professionals in seminars, 75-100 migrant/refugee families use the learning tools. Activities Creation of an innovative curriculum based on culturally competent compassionate care for health workers and volunteer working with migrant and refugee families with children focusing on parenting skills. Health professionals, volunteers will participate in piloting. Health workers and volunteers will select, write and share the parenting stories from the refugee and migrant families and develop learning tool for parents. Methodology An innovative pedagogical approach of co-production through co-creation principles and evidence from IENE projects will be used. Results, impact, benefits All activities are geared towards delivering a high quality result. The curriculum and training tools will be an added value in supporting migrant and refugee families on parenting skills. Khub will be enriched and increase usability as a collective multilingual learning tool with enormous benefit for professionals, volunteers and migrants.
According to UNHCR in 2016, 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of human rights violation, including conflict, violence. More than 5,000 migrants and refugees died in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe in 2016, mainly through Greece and Italy and for the first month of 2018 almost 500 died. Children of migrants and refugees are the fastest growing segment of the child population in many countries. All children fleeing conflict, especially those traveling alone are vulnerable to abuse of different kinds: sexual and labor exploitation including trafficking, being sold and being coerced into marriage, in their homes, communities, society or in places where migrants and/or refugees reside - including reception centers, refugee camps or informal settlements at source, transit and destination countries. IENE 8 contributes to the need of protecting and preventing unwanted situations within the migrant and refugees’ families, focusing on children. The overall goal of the project was to create an online curriculum, including learning tool/guide for health professionals and volunteers to enable them to provide support and knowledge and skills on parenting and child-family health care needs under unique and difficult conditions. The objectives of the project were to: a) Review of the literature on the needs of migrant and refugee families with children on parenting skills, focusing on factors that provide resilience, as well as those factors that disempower parents and children during refugeedom b) Develop a curriculum for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers, to enable them to provide support, knowledge and skills on parenting and child-family health care needs, under extreme and unique conditions c) Develop bite-size learning units for parents to enable them in improving knowledge in regards to parenting and support of their children and family. d) Provide training for nurses and other health professionals and volunteers e) Use Khub to share stories from professionals regarding their experience and training refugee and migrant families with children on parenting related matters. f) Disseminate the results and the outputs of the project through workshops, webinars, national seminars The target groups included: Health and social care professionals, volunteers that are working with migrants/refugees, migrant and refugee families and children. Overall, the project developed 20 online bite-size learning tools for professionals, volunteer and parents and collected 27 stories from parents on parenting challenges and achievements. Most of them were from Syria, others from Afghanistan, Iraq and so on. All these are uploaded on the Knowledge Hub of IENE projects (http://www.ienerefugeehub.eu/). The pedagogical approach of co-production through co-creation principles and evidence from IENE projects was used. The project enhanced the development of intercultural competences in professionals and volunteers, involving academics, educators and civic society, all of which contributed to the development and implementation of all activities of this project. The project emphasized the use of an open, innovative learning tool, based on the principles of peer learning and support, co-creation and effective utilization. The project is in line with the European Commission's policy A European agenda on migration. The new curriculum and training tools support migrant and refugee families on parenting skills. Khub is enriched and increased its usability as a collective multilingual learning tool with enormous benefit for professionals, volunteers and migrants. Further, the curriculum, bite-size learning tools form a paradigm and a good practice for effective use of technologies and pedagogies in training health professionals and volunteers in the vital issues of migration, integration and healthy community, regarding parenting skills and psychological support of migrant and refugee families with children. This is considered an added value of the project to the local and EU community.