Rocky Books Partnered with Project Amaan to Bring Free Books To a Girls Government School in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Rocky Books partnered with Project Amaan in September to bring four of our colourfully illustrated storybooks to the girls of Government Girls Elementary School Jalyari Bhi Khan in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
The books were provided to the school free of cost in Urdu and English as part of our mission to bring high-quality expert-approved resources to children to help them cope with issues like parental conflict and domestic abuse and the emotional toll these can take on a child’s mental well-being.
Rocky Books also strives to make all our books available in regional languages so children, parents and educators can access them in their own language and cultural context.
The Rocky Books implemented by Project Amaan are:
How Rahul Keeps Calm When He Feels Anxious
“How Rahul Keeps Calm When He Feels Anxious” in Urdu.
What is Project Amaan?
Head Teacher and Eco Schools Fellow Ibtasam Malik with her students.
Head Teacher Ibtasam Malik spearheaded Project Amaan as part of her Eco Schools Fellowship in collaboration with ALIF Pakistan and University College London (UCL) Institute of Education.
In her own words Project Amaan is “all about creating emotionally safe, nurturing spaces for our little learners in primary classes of rural public schools. Many children, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, carry silent burdens and trauma that go unaddressed in our schools and their emotional wellbeing is often overlooked.
Through Project Amaan, we aim to introduce mental health awareness and embed trauma-informed, sustainable practices into everyday school life.”
Age-appropriate healing, hands-on coping exercises and breaking stigmas
Ms Malik incorporated Rocky Books in fun and engaging ways with her school girls, encouraging them to talk openly about the difficult topics in our books, like parental conflict that causes anxiety, fear or hypervigilance in children.
While reading each book the children did the included grounding exercises together as a class. Here are some photos of the girls doing the following coping exercises:
Fire Fists
Paper Football Dribble
These grounding or coping techniques were designed by Sheena, adapted to meet the emotional needs of the child in the story and their specific scenario, age, hobbies, and culture. Children can do these exercises with their parents or siblings, or by themselves whenever they have overwhelming emotions.
Students at GGES Jalyari Bhi Khan School doing the “Fire Fists” grounding exercise from the book “Tanu Learns How To Overcome Her Fears”.
The students at GGES Jalyari Bhi Khan School doing the “Paper Ball Dribble” coping exercise from “Ali Learns How To Feel Safe”.
Mapping Feelings & Managing Stress For Children
Head Teacher Ibtisam took her mental health programme to the next level by introducing her kids to more emotional mapping activities to expand on themes from Rocky Books.
“My Safety Tree” activity had the students craft a tree where they put down their fears/anxieties at the bottom of the tree, their coping strategies formed the trunk of the tree, and their “safe people” made up the branches and leaves of the tree.
On the day the children read “Tanu Learns How To Overcome Her Fears”, they had an open discussion about how they may feel when their parents fight at home, followed up with what they would do to calm themselves in a similar situation.
Wrapping up the Rocky Books readings with “One Takeaway, One Step Forward” the students reflected on what they learned from our books.
Impact of Rocky Books on the Children
All images belong to Ibtasam Malik and have been shared with her permission.
The children found the books relatable and felt comfortable sharing personal stories.
Hearing this particular feedback reaffirmed the “why” behind Rocky Books for Sheena and I. With each book we hope to create a connection between the child in the story and the child reading the book - a connection that shows them “You are not alone.”
Ms Malik mentioned that one of the girls said, “I feel safe now when I talk about my feelings,” towards the end of the programme.
Many of us grew up not feeling comfortable talking about our emotions, or not even knowing how to express ourselves as it wasn’t something that was modeled for us by the adults around us. When Sheena and I set out to build Rocky Books resources, we knew that we wanted to break the cycle and stigma surrounding difficult topics.
Knowing that children feel heard and more comfortable sharing their feelings after reading Rocky Books affirms our mission to always #CentreTheChildren in our work.
We’re overwhelmed with love and gratitude to the students of GGES Jalyari Bhi Khan School and their wonderful teachers and Head Teacher Ibtisam Malik who made this partnership possible with her grit, compassion and commitment to her students.