In December, within the framework of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, the supervision of the classes “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” in school number 3 of the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. Trainers Victoria Antonova, Valentina Zinchuk, Natalya Berezhko and Yana Stepura conduct here two children’s groups (for younger students and teenagers), as well as a group for parents. Irina and Alexei Sukhovs came from Kiev to support the colleagues.
Reflecting in the classroom on the topic of traumatic events that occur in the life of each person, the children told many stories related to the loss of loved ones, their homes, and domestic animals. After all, even to their pets, they are very attached, love them as family members, and therefore very strongly and emotionally relive their loss or death. Practical exercises provoked a lot of feelings and emotions among the group members. Fulfilling them, the children laughed, sad, surprised, sometimes fearful. Especially difficult for them was to build a ladder to their fear. It’s so scary to even get close to one small step towards a reminder of something terrible. But they did it! The children learned a lot of techniques, practiced courage and are now ready to expand the boundaries of their lives.
The final meeting for parents was also inspiring. Dads and mothers expressed many thanks to the trainers for taking care of the children, their wisdom and professionalism. A particularly important victory, which was noted by all parents, was the change of one girl, who until now was almost always silent at school and talked only with her mother. And during the fourth lesson in the program “Children and War”, she said her first words and several phrases for all. And this helped to a unique atmosphere of trust and acceptance in the group, and, of course, sweet tea with snacks.
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