Supporting mental health runs through all of our programmes with children and young people, here at Butterflies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this focus was more important than ever.
Butterflies delivers a mental health and life skills education curriculum, through which we promote holistic health. Since 1995, we have delivered this curriculum through the Child Health and Sports Cooperative (CHSC), with the aim of bringing about behavioural and attitudinal change among children, families, and communities. Initially established to focus on health, in 2018 the mandate was broadened to include mental health and a sports component.
- Through the CHSC we aim to educate children on the importance of safe and healthy living, which includes being emotionally well;
- Through CHSC workshops the children discuss health, nutrition and environmental issues and gain knowledge regarding prevention of diseases and the importance of nutrition and a clean environment;
- Sport is used as a tool to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of the child;
- There are two “buddies” in each cooperative – a girl and a boy around the age of 14 - who are the focal points for children to reach out to when they have a problem or need support;
- The CHSC is operational in eight countries across the world and in eight states of India.
CHSC has been proven to be a safe space for children to share, learn and take actions to promote their own health and emotional wellbeing.
Mental health is not a stand-alone programme, but it is woven into everything we do.
You can read more about our interventions to support mental health and emotional wellbeing in the practitioner guidance paper attached.
Do you have any comments you can share with the community relating to our work, or learnings about how your organisation supported mental health during the pandemic? Please share, or post any follow-up questions for us at Butterflies below - we'd love to hear from you.
The attached resources are part of the How We Care series, an innovative space for those working with children and families to share practice. By practitioners, for practitioners. Learnings from 2 other Family for Every Child members, on this theme, have been shared here.
