NP-UN Western Bureau.
“Hope Worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation has launched the “Psychological Assistance to Children Living in the “Red” Zone of War Conflict Through Trainings for Psychologists and Volunteers and Therapy Sessions for Children and Parents” project.
The Project is implemented with support of Canada Fund for Local Initiatives within the frames of partnership between the Foundation and the Embassy of Canada to Ukraine. The contribution agreement was signed earlier on January 15.
The goal of the Project is to equip a team of psychologists and volunteers working in Eastern Ukraine with skills of dealing with war trauma through innovative recovery techniques and empower children from “grey” and “red” zone of war conflict with skills and capacities to deal with their traumatic experience and stress using the techniques of psychological self-assistance, relaxation and recovery techniques, states the charity in a media release.
The project envisages one “Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques” training in Mariupol (February 2018) and two therapy courses – one for children in Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, and the other one in Pokrovsk (January-February 2018). It should be noted that therapy sessions in Maryinka district have already started – they are held since January 22 for the group of 15 children and a group of 5 parents (mothers). On January 31 the fourth session has been held.
According to Ira Sukhova, the chief psychologist of the Project, “it is a common fact that war events are injuring the human psyche. Yet, they cause the most devastating harm to children who are still formed and who do not have necessary resilience to resist negative external circumstances. Direct assistance to people living in a conflict zone – in the cities of the so-called “grey” and “red” zones, today is extremely important”. It is certainly not known when exactly the conflict in Eastern Ukraine will end. Therefore the “Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions are useful not only as the first aid. Equipping people with knowledge and practical skills of dealing with stress disorders on the spot will have a long-lasting result, – says the psychologist. – In addition, training for trainers who live in the same cities, and therefore better know the specifics of the region and the peculiarities of the mentality of its inhabitants, will increase positive developments and will foster continuous transfer of acquired theoretical and practical knowledge”.
“This year, with support of Canada Fund for Local Initiatives we have started another stage of the project, focusing on working with people living close to the war conflict zone. Cooperation with the Embassy of Canada to Ukraine opens up new opportunities for wider and more profound assistance to the IDPs and children of war – those who today need immediate psychological rehabilitation”, states Volodymyr Yermakov, president of “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation.
The “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project has lasted in Ukraine for 4 years. The team of project psychologists has gained unique knowledge and experience of working with war trauma. Thus, within its 5 stages the project has covered with trainings and therapy sessions (in terms of geography) the entire territory of Ukraine – from the west (Lviv, Drohobych, Ivano-Frankivsk) and the centre (Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy) to the south (Odesa, Mykolayiv) and east (Dnipro, the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions). Over 350 psychologists-volunteers have already been trained to work with “Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques” program. Nearly 800 children and adults – internally displaced persons and those who live in the “grey” and “red” zones of conflict – received psychological assistance skills and techniques of coping with traumatic experiences and stressful situations.
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