Meet the Quokka: The critter helping Ukrainian children smile again

Meet the Quokka, the world’s happiest animal! This small marsupial is native to a small area of Australia. Its unique facial structure makes it look like it’s always smiling. On the other side of the world, the humble Quokka is helping children in war-torn Ukraine remember how to smile again.

Across Ukraine, IsraAID’s child-friendly spaces offer kids a chance to be kids again. Since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, many Ukrainian children have been displaced, often multiple times. This means a lack of stability, disruptions to their education, the loss of friends and support structures, and enormous amounts of stress. For many Ukrainian children, these child-friendly spaces are their first chance to interact with other children again, make friends, participate in supplemental educational activities, and restore some sense of routine.

The IsraAID Ukraine team decided that they needed a mascot for these hubs. They came up with a couple of options and presented them to children of all ages. The kids described each mascot with one adjective each, dipped their palms in paint and voted for their favorite by adding their palm print to the animal posters.

A huge majority voted for this obscure Australian animal with its sweet smile, and the Quokka became the official mascot of our child-friendly spaces. IsraAID’s child protection and mental health experts have developed a wealth of materials with our mascot – coloring pages, labyrinths, mood thermometers, stickers, and more. As the Quokka has become a bigger and bigger part of the hubs, the children want to learn more and more about them. Our Quokka Hub facilitator manuals include sound self-care advice, with real life examples and lessons that this sweet animal can teach us.

At our Quokka hubs, both the kids and our mental health experts discovered that beyond the sweet smile, the humble Quokka had a lot to teach them. Quokkas are social animals. They live in groups and communal activities are a huge part of their lives. At the same time, Quokkas need their privacy. Individual animals often take time to be alone. Quokka habitats often have dedicated private spaces in shrubs, where the animals can take some time for themselves.

One boy, Vlad, described the quokka as “cool, unusual, and smiley.” He added, “it makes me feel calm and trust the people who are teaching us about it.” He explained that the stickers and materials have been a big help for him in understanding and managing his own emotions.

No one can smile all the time. But the Quokka’s smile can help remind us that even in the darkest times, we can find opportunities to experience joy. We can find and build the tools that help us stay resilient. We can adapt to new environments, bond with others, and still take time alone to take care of ourselves.