For children from stories of trauma, naming, expressing, and feeling emotions can be a high mountain to climb. When a child is regularly exposed to environments that don’t feel safe or consistent, their brain and body move into protection mode, often leaving them stuck in fight, flight, or freeze.

Because of your generosity, Back2Back staff are trained in trauma-competent care, learning to see that behavior is how a child who feels silenced asks for help. Trauma-informed staff meet each of these needs with compassion, safety, and tools for healing. Your support equips staff to create spaces where children can learn what peace feels like, where they can name their feelings and know they are safe to do so.

This past summer, Back2Back staff in Mazatlán, Mexico, planned and implemented a course called Recognizing My Emotions. Its purpose was simple yet powerful: help each child identify and express emotions, experience healthy regulation, and have fun along the way.

41 children and 25 adults attended each day, including those who live in Back2Back homes and families who participate in Saturday programs. Together, they moved through five creative stations, each designed to help them understand, express, and release emotions in healthy ways:

• Emotional Identification: Children built their own “motors” to recognize when emotions were running high or low, promoting awareness and expression.
  
• Art Therapy: Through painting, bracelet-making, and creativity, children practiced calmness and focus. They even made “support cushions” (stress balls) to help regulate emotions in real time.
  
• Biblical Reflection: Lessons and art activities helped children explore emotions through God’s truth, learning to surrender fear and sadness to Him.
  
• Physical Movement: Games and sensory activities taught them to connect movement and emotion, releasing energy and tension in healthy ways.
  
• Connection and Play: Time for conversation, laughter, and friendship reminded everyone we heal through relationships.
  

One day was dedicated entirely to water play and soccer matches. Bubbles, water balloons, and free play on the field were simply joys used to teach children that their emotions and fun can coexist. 

By the end of the week, staff noticed children naming emotions easily, using the tools they’d created, and regulating themselves with growing confidence. At the Bible teaching station, a 10-year-old boy quietly shared, “I have had to deal with many family losses. I feel I know the word now to say how I feel, and I know I can share it with others to feel less alone.”

His words captured the heart of the entire week and the impact of your partnership. Because of you, children like him are learning that emotions are not enemies, their voices matter, and they don’t have to face their pain or joy alone.

The difference safe adults and spaces make in the lives of vulnerable children cannot be overstated. Without kid-friendly tools and relationships, children often stay in survival mode, unsure how to ask for help. But together, through your generosity and the dedication of staff across the world, children are growing, healing, and learning new ways to communicate their needs.

And we won’t stop until every child is known & loved.