US EditionVR headsets take war-scarred children to world away from Gaza
UNICEF's virtual reality therapy cuts recovery time nearly in half for Gaza's war-affected children needing urgent mental health support, agency officials said.
- In Al-Zawayda, central Gaza, operators run VR sessions inside a white tent where children scarred by the war explore safe virtual gardens and beaches through headsets.
- Two years of war have left vast numbers of children requiring mental-health and psychosocial services, with UNICEF spokesman Jonathan Crickx saying around one million children in the Gaza Strip need support.
- Programmers design games with therapeutic, preventive and developmental goals for traumatised children, and Abdalla Abu Shamale, mental health supervisor, said VR cuts typical courses from about 10 to 12 sessions to five to seven sessions with 'Positive results'.
- The programme's demonstrated effectiveness includes war-amputee and injured children, whose immersive reactions include reaching, clapping, touching, and calling out to virtual animals.
- One operator put a blue TechMed Gaza headset on 15-year-old Salah Abu Rukab, who sustained a head injury, and he told AFP he enjoys virtual scenes of trees, grass and flowers.
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48 Articles
"I see birds," marvels a little boy by moving on a wheelchair. On his eyes, a virtual reality helmet carried away from the destruction of Gaza, ravaged by more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
Crian the marked by war in the Gaza Strip is participating in a utic therapy program that uses virtual reality tools that can transport them to a distant world from destroying them around them. Read more (12/02/2025
In Al-Zawayda, in the center of Gaza, there has been a white tent for some time now, in which children can literally enter another world.
Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP - AFP Between negotiations, attacks, invitation between leaders and the plight of the population, the situation in the Middle East remains very tense. 4:00 PM From VR to help children face the horrors of warIn Gaza, a virtual reality helmet helps children traumatized by war. "I see birds," marvels a little boy by moving on a wheelchair. On his eyes, a virtual reality helmet carried away from the destruction of Gaza, ravaged …
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