Early childhood is a time of critical growth and development when children learn how to be resilient and adaptable- this is especially true for children in humanitarian settings. Investment in these vulnerable children can bring long-term, positive effects on their futures and the world at large. Thus, BRAC has developed the ‘BRAC Humanitarian Play Lab’, based on its existing ‘Play Lab’ model of play-based ECD intervention for Bangladesh, contextualized for a humanitarian setting, namely for the Rohingya community.

BRAC plans to study the effects of play-based ECD interventions on children age 0-6 in the settlements in Cox’s Bazar, eventually contextualizing and expanding to test the model in Jordan, Lebanon and Uganda. The main objective of the project is to build an evidence base to strategically advocate for ECD in emergencies and to furthermore, test the effectiveness of the ‘BRAC Humanitarian Play Lab’ (HPL) model in different humanitarian contexts.

Aligned with this aim, BIED’s novel approach to delivering psychosocial support is to provide a community based mental health model that has been adapted and scaled to a four-tiered psychosocial support approach in Cox’s Bazar, drawn from research and previous experience. As the name suggests, the model involves four steps that consist of four levels of staff that create a referral pathway for psychosocial support for Rohingya women, children and even some men.

In order to ensure that adolescent children, who form a significant number of the Rohingya community, are not neglected from intervention, an adolescent program in Humanitarian setting is also in progress to reinforce their coping mechanism in a fragile area, as well as develop their leadership skills and resilience.