Yuli Khrumchenko, an educator with the Israeli international aid group Early Starters International, says the first thing her team does in any disaster zone is create a safe space for children. The group has done that in Moldova and bombarded Kyiv after Russia invaded Ukraine, in Israel for evacuees from the Gaza border communities and the north, after hurricanes and wildfires abroad, and even with migrant families in New York and Syrian refugees in Greece.
Khrumchenko says children in crisis usually process events through play. They stage sirens, hide in houses or tents, and reenact what happened to them. After October 7, when the team worked with evacuees in Dead Sea hotels, she saw children playing “terrorists and children,” and often choosing to play the terrorists. She said adults were shocked, but the behavior was a healthy way to cope with an incomprehensible reality, because the attackers had been stronger than the communities they hit. For children, she argued, play functions naturally as therapy does for adults.
She said Israel is still living in “routine emergency,” not post-trauma, because the war continues to create new danger. In that setting, she said children need a meaningful adult, a sense of control, listening, emotional conversation, hope, and optimism. Children who lost both parents on October 7 can often find another close relative quickly, and Israel has an unusual advantage, she added, because trauma and resilience expertise from the Gaza border has accumulated over more than a decade and should be shared nationwide.
Khrumchenko is now turning that experience into a book, “Here It Is Safe,” written with Dr. Maya Weizel, to help educators, therapists, welfare workers, students and volunteers build safe spaces for children during prolonged collective trauma. She said the aim is to help adults support children without panicking, while also caring for their own wellbeing. The core lesson, she said, is that “the right of the child to be a child” remains intact even in war.
