Parent and Child Space

We identified that many refugee children struggle to adapt to school life in Geneva. With this in mind, we launched this project to provide support to parents and children before schooling begins. Our parent and child space is open to children of preschool age. Here, the children of refugees can start becoming socialised to life in Geneva while they wait to begin school.

The project is aimed at refugee families as well as refugees who are single mothers. Our goal is to help mothers who, as a consequence of the ordeal of fleeing from East Africa, find themselves isolated and have not been able to take advantage of the public services available to help them.

More specifically, the space for parents and children is designed to:

• Promote an appreciation of values from the country of origin together with a parental awareness of schooling and the social and educational routines of the new environment.
• Combat the isolation felt by many refugee parents and their children as they wait for a place at nursery or school.
• Provide a place where children can develop their linguistic, cognitive and motor skills with the involvement of their parents.
• Answer personal and administrative questions.
• Provide referrals to public institutions of support, such as the Child Guidance Service.

The Jaques-Dalcroze Pedagogical Method of Intercultural Mediation

At AMIC, we have developed a partnership with the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute to complement the parent-child space. This partnership creates opportunities for refugees to partake in physical and artistic activities. Through these activities, the migrant families can discover new ways of interacting with music and rhythm. By stimulating motor skills via music and rhythm, this method can improve the physical well-being of mothers and their children. These activities promote self-confidence, a sense of sharing in the appreciation of learning, as well as teaching the value of difference in individuality. Moreover, the method supports the development of language, concentration and memory through encouraging creativity in movement, music and improvisation. These activities promote better child-parent relationships, overall socialising within the group, and confidence in autonomy.

This project also presents a further opportunity for social integration by introducing the migrant families to the many art schools here in Geneva