HALABJA COMMUNITY PLAY PROJECT

Halabja Community Play Project was awarded the IPA Right to Play Award at the IPA Triennial Conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

– May 2014

HALABJA COMMUNITY PLAY PROJECT

The Halabja Community Play Project is a collaboration that has led to the creation of the first adventure playground in Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan. Since the project’s inception in 2009 an authentic partnership has developed between local children, families, neighbours, municipal authorities, and with the playwork professionals and volunteers from the United Kingdom. Together they have designed and built a unique and culturally specific play space, with the full participation of the children at every stage of the build. The aim of all involved is clear: to create a genuine adventure playground that is a challenging, inclusive and child-led space allowing children to be free, to create, to build, to play and to develop.

The Play Project responds to article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that proclaims play as a universal human right. Play is essential to healthy childhood development, and the child’s drive to play is their mechanism to learn how to survive and flourish in the world around them. This project also embraces and promotes article 2 of the UNCRC that focuses on non-discrimination, article 3 on best interests of the child, and article 12 on respect for the views of the child.

Halabja is a Kurdish town in southeast Kurdistan that makes up the northern part of Iraq. It has suffered chemical bombardment, civil war, poverty and a lack of infrastructure over the past three decades. Halabja is situated next to the Hewraman mountain range close to the border with Iran at the end of the fertile Sharazoor plain. This is a rich farmland where the Kurds have grazed their animals and grown their crops for thousands of years. A diverse community of Kurdish tribes and religions live in and around the city, which has a population of approximately 75,000. A growing young population, increase in road traffic, and a lack of safe places to play were the motivating factors for the

conception of the Halabja Community Play Project back in 2009. This pioneering community initiated and led the collaborative play project that is funded, co-constructed and supported by the UK charity formed to guide them. Kdher Kareem, the Mayor of the town, supported the project by donating land, trees and materials for the build. At the IPA Triennial Conference in Istanbul in May 2014, the Mayor said, “Empowering children to build a playground with their own hands is a special experience that will last a lifetime. To provide a place where they can play, undirected by adults – and to let them build an environment in safety, where they can make their own decisions about when and how they play – is to grant them real freedom.” This is the first project of its kind in Iraq. Halabja is recovering from war and devastation, and there are many parallels with the era of the construction of London adventure playgrounds in the 1950/60s. However, although this project shares elements with European adventure playgrounds, it is unique and sensitive to the specific needs and culture of the town. UK knowledge of theory, play types, adventure playground construction and the importance of a local playworker on site, has been combined with the knowledge and views of the local community to create a play space unique to the town. Acts of war and the aftermath are particularly hard on children and young people and although many organisations attempt to answer basic needs of those survivors for water food, shelter, too often there is no outlet through play for the children. The importance and benefits of playing, although often underestimated, are proven to be essential to children’s quality of life, growth and development, and have therapeutic benefits. This has particular significance to the children of Halabja who live amidst the traumatic effects of decades of war and suffering. The Halabja Play Project enhances the town by safeguarding an area for creative and dynamic play by children and young people. Halabja’s Mayor said, “Play can offer a way to change the environment that children had no part in destroying, and are often excluded from rebuilding.” The site contains large swings, earth mounds, and equipment and swings for children under five, a fire pit, climbing and jumping opportunities. Local materials and skills have been used innovatively including, for example, a giant plastic pipe slide, and a traditional vine-covered shaded area with native planting and seating for parents to socialise – providing a space for community ties to be strengthened. The site also contains a store full of loose parts, play equipment, tools and materials.

In comparison to the very limited, and often unfinished, standardized playgrounds or sports areas within Halabja which have been built by the municipality or outside agencies, this project has maintained a truly authentic partnership that has empowered the children and people of Halabja in a way they have not experienced before. Everyone’s commitment over the long period of gaining funding to complete the playground and their on-going investment of time, voluntary work and donations is testament to this. All of the work fundraising and building this project has been done on a voluntary basis, and all of the team members from the UK work unpaid – both at home and in Halabja. The Trustees of the charity have various ideas about replicating or spreading the project to other communities in the region, such as rolling out a mobile play service in out-lying villages and other deprived towns in the region, running a tailored playwork training programme with the town, to eventually creating a local or regional Play Association. Yet, they fully recognize the utmost importance of evolving projects slowly and gradually to maintain an approach of authentic partnership and true community ownership of any further initiatives. As with the current site, any further sites or initiatives would be developed from the impetus of local people’s wishes and concerns and their full involvement.

Children of all ages now play at the Halabja playground and the number of those accessing the site has increased. Changes in play behaviours have been observed as children work through trauma, and local support of all kinds has grown as more families have moved into the area.

The Halabja Community Play Project was honored with the “Right to Play” award by the International Play Association for supporting access to play for children in crisis. The local play worker attended the International Play Association conference in Istanbul in May 2014 with the Mayor of Halabja and another community representative where together they accepted the IPA award from the IPA President Theresa Casey. Upon accepting the award, Mayor Kareem said, “The Halabja Community Play Project has gone a long way to making sure the children of Halabja are protected and respected. I am very proud of the achievements the children of Halabja have managed to complete through the project.” l