Last Friday, the new NEST in the refugee centre in Drachten was officially opened. NEST is an after-school programme for 6-12 year-old children living in refugee centres. The main goal of NEST is to offer children a safe, warm place, in which they can build a trusting relationship with staff and volunteers and do all kinds of activities, to strengthen their resilience.
Together with Kinderpostzegels and IN Foundation, International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI) developed the Nest-model in Bosnia. Now it is implemented by De Vrolijkheid in refugee centres in the Netherlands (AZC Katwijk was the first, AZC Burgum the second, Zeewolde the third), with support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery.
ICDI’s role is to train the staff and volunteers of De Vrolijkheid, the main implementing organization, in the Nest approach and to do research on the impact of the approach on the children.
