In conversation with: Maria Palha

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Last week saw the start of the 4CHANGE Talks, a series of informal conversations with members of the 4Change Community and other guests, to share inspiring projects and experiences that offer different perspectives on the world and our society. The first guest was Maria Palha, a member of the 4Change Community and founder of the Be Human Association (http://www.behuman.org.pt | insta: @kids_behuman). The topic of the conversation: the “Kids Project | An Emotional Health Kit for Families”, of which a book and documentary will be published.

How did it all start?

After the publication of “A First Aid Box of Emotions” (2016) – a book that is a collection of stories from around the world and a sos guide to emotions – we came up with the idea of creating a kit for parents and children, co-created with the help of “children” from the four corners of the world. This kit includes tips, techniques and fun activities inspired by the different countries we visited during the project and, in a fun way, helps us get to know each other better and relate more positively to others and the planet.

What was the main idea behind the project?

The idea was to create a new tool with various experts. In this case, our experts would be children aged 5 to 10 from different parts of the world. The aim of the interviews was to find out their tips and recommendations for more humane societies.

How many countries did you manage to visit and what was the main result?

In total, we interviewed more than 350 children in 12 different countries and came up with a series of fun activities, tips and “things they hate adults doing these days”. We started with Portuguese children, moved on to the children of gangsters in Sierra Leone, children growing up with monks in Japanese monasteries, Colombians from indigenous communities and beyond; Carioca children were also included, some growing up in favelas, others on the asphalt. In São Tomé and Príncipe we gathered tips on family formats and how to deal with anger. This was followed by India, Nepal and Bhutan, which gave great input on the importance of spirituality. In Egypt we interviewed the children of Bedouin desert nomads and Jordan was the icing on the cake in the Middle East. Both reinforced the importance of religion and change in well-being processes.

What’s next?

At the moment, we’ve compiled “disgust with adult attitudes and their tips for a better world” into a documentary (“Little HumanEyes”, with active crowdfunding). We also have an Instagram page, @kids_behuman, which helps give you an idea of what you’ll find in the documentary.

But there’s more, right?

Yes, the documentary is just one of the products resulting from the project. With the children’s tips, we have created several games that help develop everyone’s humanity. In a simple, fun and playful way, they are games to be played above all in groups (Emotional Jenga is already in schools, with families and institutions). And the book “Kit de Saúde Emocional para Pais, feito pode filhos” (Emotional Health Kit for Parents, made can children) (in its early stages of publication), which compiles tips from experts, suggestions from families around the world and a series of workshops/playful activities to do with children and adults. In this book you’ll find the same structure as the articles published in Visão magazine: each text focuses on 1 emotional competence followed by some fun activities that can be integrated into the family dynamic and which help to develop it. At the end of 2018 we also started running a series of workshops, Bootcamps and team building sessions (run by BeHuman), some for children, others for families and companies, always with a view to humanizing the group.

A challenge, to conclude: sum up the potential impact of the KIDS project in one sentence.

It’s a contagious methodology that, in a fun way, gets adults and adults alike involved and, consequently, to know how to support future generations to be more emotionally competent: to get to know each other better, with better relationships between everyone and meaningful interactions with the planet. Conscious societies, happy children and planet!

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