IMPACT

In inner city Nairobi, Kenya, where only 2pc of primary school children had been washing their hands with soap, our intervention took that figure to 53pc (read more). We know this because we hired local enumerators to count them. Our WASH programme has been widely used in South Sudan, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Haiti, and Bangladesh.
Across the Middle East, in Bangladesh with the Rohingya community, and also in Haiti, we have reached tens of thousands of children and teenagers whose lives have been torn apart by the impact of conflict or disasters with psychosocial support programming that has made a measurable difference to their lives.  
Hundreds of thousands of children have watched our landmine awareness film ChucheQhalin, our very first programme created in 2004, according to our local Afghan partner OMAR. Our DRR films have brought meaningful preparedness and safety awareness to children and communities hit by powerful flooding and cyclones across South East Asia, as well as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. In one Philippine province alone, more than 7,000 teachers were trained in our film and puppetry methodology.  

Case studies

  • "No Strings is entertaining and at the same time you are passing a message. I find there is a relationship between the two. It is more effective than previous approaches because children use their imaginations. As a teacher when I just talk without doing, it becomes very difficult. Puppets give children a better understanding about the different ways we transmit disease, and how to avoid it. Let us say you have [puppet] Jesse and we see him wipe himself with his hands after defecating, for example, and won’t wash them. Children act this out with him and laugh and it’s exciting, but using the puppets in this way helps messages make sense in children’s minds. Jesse's stomach will pain and he has diarrhoea. You can see the link when you act it out. It’s more memorable.”

    Health Club Teacher, Kawangware, Nairobi (WASH)

  • “After our [No Strings] training in Cambodia, I disseminated all the learnings I got from the workshop. One of the first things I did was take pupils and parents from my school and plant 2,000 mahogany trees on the mountain, in order to prevent landslides. Also I can say that Plan Philippines was very happy with our [own] trainings. Their representative said that in the past they had sent people to various ToT workshops to little effect, but in Rizal we have conducted so many trainings across the rollout. She said this was the first time they had had this kind of return on investment. I can say that 80pc of those who attended our Batch 1 and 2 master trainings [120 in total] have trained their required 50 staff. That means we are reaching many many thousands of children.”

    Principal, Rodriguez Elementary School, Rizal, Philippines (DRR)

  • “The use of No Strings tools creates an improvement in well-being among children and raises awareness among community groups on the rights of children, inter-family communication and gender-based violence. No Strings serves as an effective catalyst to enable children to express their emotions and to support adults in understanding emotional signals from their children. The children’s positive changes in behavior have ranged from expressing feelings of joy and happiness to an improvement in school performance and many other positive behaviors changes in relationship with peers (sociability, sharing of toys, clothes). One child said: ‘What has changed for me is that I don’t feel sad anymore, and I play more. All the bad things I did before disappeared and I am happier to be home.’”

    Equitas Foundation Progress Report, Promoting Child Protection and Resilience through Puppetry in Haiti: 

  • "For me, the most significant change is the way puppets can be used to attract girls like me to use sanitary pads. When they were brought to us we didn’t know what is this and how to use them. I was just thinking they were disposable. Our teacher told us that we should not throw them away but go home and rinse them in cold water and salt. In the puppet show we created, the girl didn’t want a period and her dress was in a mess. The period said she should always be happy and confident. This way I can help other girls not be afraid of using them and washing them – it’s only their own blood. And these ones don’t leak. You find a lot of girls are in a mess or don’t come to school, and we don’t concentrate at school when periods are new. We don’t shower. We are afraid boys will pick on us."

    Victoria, 13, Pupil, Kawangware, Nairobi

Excerpt from External Study into Use of No Strings PSS and Peace tools, Middle East:

“The qualitative data shows that children, parents, and animators noted positive outcomes in children, ranging from less fear to less aggressiveness with other children, and stronger social relationships. Children reported that they enjoyed the No Strings sessions and wished that other children would join so that they could have fun or “be happy like us”.

"Some children cited changes that are clearly linked to No Strings. They cited less fear of the dark, which is a key message of Out of the Shadows, and accepting others who are different, a key message in Red Top Blue Top. One 10‑year‑old boy in Turkey said: “Before the movie I used to wake up from sleeping and imagine a beast in the house but now after the movie I don’t fear darkness anymore.” Related to the key messages in Red Top Blue Top, children often said they had learned ‘not to speak violently’ and to be less aggressive with other children. 

“Animators confirmed these positive changes in children and found that No Strings also resulted in greater trust and communication among children and that children enjoyed learning new things in the sessions. Animators also noticed many improvements in children who were not able to communicate well or integrate into a group of other children prior to the No Strings activities. In these cases, animators found that, after several sessions, children were willing and able to interact positively with their peers and that these extreme changes were more likely among children who were more psychosocially distressed, based on animator observation prior to No Strings. For instance, one boy did not speak to anyone in the No Strings sessions for a month and a half, then became “active, talkative and able to discuss ideas and to share it with his parents and us,” said an animator. 

“Parents also cited positive changes among their children, saying that participation in these activities was ‘like a genuine way‑out for kids’ and ‘the only place where they can express themselves and spread their bad energy.’ Parents noted general changes such as, ‘they became more confident and comfortable’.”