You Can Never Have Too Many Flowers: Nature as a Support for Survivors of Genocide, War, and Conflict

One in five children around the world are surviving war or other violent conflicts. The trauma of disruptions to community, safety, and loss of friends, family, and home can have wide-ranging and life-long impacts on children who survive. While impacts will vary from individual to individual, the trauma can impact mental health, feelings of safety, relationships, ability to learn, and many other aspects of their lives. Many educators in the US and globally are working with refugee students or other students who are navigating the impacts on their brains and bodies of different traumas. This project seeks to answer the following research questions: How can nature-based curriculum help child-survivors of war deal with the stressors and trauma they carry? How can such a curriculum be adapted and differentiated for different contexts and abilities, such as areas with limited internet access, or without regular access to a classroom, or different language proficiency? The research is interdisciplinary, pulling from fields of Ecopsychology, trauma-informed education practices, and research on the unique and diverse challenges refugee populations go through. No matter where refugees end up, there is land one can connect to to help ground and disconnect from life stressors. Helping refugee children and families deepen their connection to nature can be a low-cost intervention to support positive mental health and cognition. This project seeks to provide educators with rationale and a starting point to connecting children to the natural world around their schools or home. For situations where access to nature is a barrier, observing pictures and videos of nature can have similar but decreased impacts, so photos or videos can supplement in-person experiences. The curriculum consists of five weeks of lessons, each culminating with a piece of writing or audio recording exploring the natural world from different lenses. With parent permission, students may share their writings with other participants from around the world. Interacting with a nature-based curriculum will also support the facilitators through exposure to photo and video of green spaces.