Abstract
The Suitcase Project is a support project for African migrant children in South Africa’s Johannesburg inner city that provides some learning about approaches that may help war-affected children cope with their past and present reality. Using artwork and storytelling the project worked with a small group of children over a period of 5 years to record their experiences in and on a set of old suitcases. The space created by the project allowed a place for children to feel some control over their lives, to mourn some of their losses, to see themselves as more than “refugees” and to begin to look to their futures. With reference to recent thinking about trauma and narrative therapy approaches, as well as the use of artwork in healing processes, the chapter explores how creative work can help migrant children to a modicum of well-being in spite of their ongoing precarious lives.
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Clacherty, G. (2015). The Suitcase Project: Working with Unaccompanied Child Refugees in New Ways. In: Palmary, I., Hamber, B., Núñez, L. (eds) Healing and Change in the City of Gold. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08768-9_2
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