The impact of therapy with animals

He walks with the therapist for his first session. After the Gaza War, he’s completely mixed up. Full of fear and not being able to concentrate at school. Another kid, close to the border, wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. “We have to go,” he shouts, shaking over his tiny body.

These are just two children out of hundreds, who are completely traumatized again. Post trauma? No, we don’t know that anymore. It repeats itself again and again. I have never seen so many people exhausted and traumatized after the 11-day war with Gaza. In 2014, more than 4,000 missiles fell in 51 days. The same number of missiles fell now in 11 days.

After a few sessions, I see the first smile reappear. We will initially go for 10 lessons and then revisit the situation. Each session costs 125 NIS (32 euros) of which Yad L’Ami pays 100 and the people themselves 25 NIS.