Health and childcare were defined as the priority sector in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Norway and Slovenia in 2005, and Rakitna Youth Sanatorium won the support in 2007 with their innovative and well prepared project.
As Katarina Mavec, psychologist and the member of the professional team in the Youth Centre, explained in the presentation that followed the signing of the agreement, horses for their size allow good physical contact. Their heartbeat, slow breathing and higher body temperature have a calming effect. In many ways horses are similar to people and for that reason an important tool in teaching children to communicate without the pressures of human contact. If children want to get a horse to co-operate and obey they're going to have to step outside of themselves and interact, communicate and be open to another creature. This lesson can then be translated to the outside world.
Photo: Rakitna Youth Centre
The programme is meant for children with eating disorders between 18 and 26 years, who were already involved in different other therapies and it takes between one and three months. The Youth Centre will also organise different conferences, meetings and presentations.
As Ambassador Guro Katharina Vikør said in her speech, Norway always put health and childcare high on their priority list. As she said: “Children are our future and we should always try to improve their living conditions. Our society has been developing very fast in the past decades but fast pace of life has had its negative side effects.”
Rakitna with its great nature is an ideal place for introduction of equine assisted therapy. And with devotion that staff of the Youth Centre shows the project is bound to success.