In November 2022, group supervisions for new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” Program were held in Kamianets-Podilskyy (Khmelnytskyy region) and Chernivtsi. The new specialists were trained in autumn and are currently conducting therapy sessions for children and their parents in their native cities. The supervision is very important for the new trainers. During these meetings they continue to learn and receive support from their mentors. Also the new trainers have an opportunity to share their own experience, hear the experience of others, and get answers to their questions. Supervisions were conducted by Iryna Sukhova – an experienced psychologist and the team leader of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project. Iryna was also present at some of the therapy sessions with children and adults conducted by the new trainers.

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In autumn 2022 “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions for children aged 10-14 were held in Kyiv. All the children came to Kyiv from different regions of Ukraine, and currently live in the capital. The sessions were conducted by the trainers Olena Bielik and Yulia Kozlova.

“During our meetings wast was special for me to watch how children from different parts of Ukraine with the same problems, were able to unite and continue communication beyond our platform” – one of the trainers says. – “And of course, the most important result of the therapy sessions is the improvement of the physical, psychological and emotional state of children.

“As for me, a vivid story of healing was the story of a girl from Izyum, Kharkiv region,” – says another trainer. – “At the beginning of our sessions she had big problems with sleeping, nutrition and behaviour. But with each of our meeting she was opening as a flower. She was doing all the home tasks very attentively and by the end of the course she could even provide support and assistance to her loved ones by herself”.

Activities are held within the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project with the financial support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF)

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In October and November “Children and War. TRT” therapy course for teenagers was held in Chernivtsi. The sessions were organized as a part of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project in cooperation with the “Caritas” Charity Foundation. Experienced project trainers – Galyna Fesun and Maryna Chorney – conducted therapy course for 11 teenagers. The children attended the classes with pleasure, most of all they liked communication with peers, working together with different emotional states and self-help tools to overcome fear. The group included participants from Chernivtsi and other cities of Ukraine who temporarily moved to Chernivtsi. All participants worked equally hard, were interested and friendly.

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Nikopol is a city in Dnipropetrovsk region that is under constant shelling, sometimes several times per day. People do not hide in bomb shelters, they live there. For children and their parents who spend nights in bomb shelters the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project of the Charity Foundation “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” in cooperation with the “Nikopol Center for Adult Education” organized the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy courses. Project trainers Olha Pastushok and Liudmyla Semencha work with the participants right in the bomb shelter. They teach them various self-help techniques: how to calm down during a panic attack, how to deal with a scary memory or fear, how to fall asleep to the sound of explosions.

“We are very grateful for the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology. We can use it to help children and their parents in this difficult time, – says Olga Pastushok. – It is difficult in Nikopol, there are constant explosions and gunshots, but we are working. People really need help, their psychological state is terrible. But together we overcome fears, pain, practice self-help techniques, they are effective. There is a lot of work. For example, today we held two groups for children and two groups for parents. After the session, we presented our little participants with gift backpacks from the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project. It was a real surprise for the children. There was so much joy that even some adults couldn’t hold back their tears.”

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The three-day “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” training was held on November 12, 19 and 20, 2022 for educators from Irpin and Bucha – small towns of the Kyiv region that suffered tremendously from the russian occupation. The training was organized in cooperation with the Zoryanytsya project (mental health recovery space), which unites several charity foundations and NGOs. Among the 17 participants of the training were educators and psychologists of the Irpin and Bucha districts, also educators from Plast youth organization in Irpin. The “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project trainers, Iryna Sukhova, Nataliya Podolyak, and Olena Bozhor, worked with the participants.

It was the third out of 12 planned trainings within the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project held with the financial support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF). In August 2022 CUF provided a grant to expand a trauma therapy program, which trains the trainers to work with children and adults with war trauma. The project is implemented by the “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation with the support of American and Canadian partners, HOPE worldwide (USA) and HOPE worldwide Canada.

“Implementing the project our team uses the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology, one of the most effective proven methodologies of support and recovery for children and adults with war trauma, – says Iryna Sukhova, “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project leader. – We teach the participants the understanding of psychological trauma, how children experience trauma, the importance of the parents’ role in healing children’s traumas. We also give them tools for working with traumatized children, which are described in the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology. On the other hand, our participants – educators, psychologists, teachers, and tutors – also survived the occupation and were traumatized by war in their own homes. Therefore, our task is to treat them with care and give them the opportunity to heal their personal wounds. They all are heroes. They take care of children and help them. And we teach them to take care of themselves in order to have the power to further continue their important work”.

Here are some reviews of the participants:
“The topic of the training was relevant for me personally. I often encounter various emotions and thoughts, which will now be easier to deal with, thanks to an imaginary “backpack” with tools and techniques. It will also help in my personal communication with the closest people, to improve their emotional state. I will use the tools in the work with children, I plan to do it after my personal practice” – Oleksandr Makhakhing

“The topic of the training was very important for me personally, as I am a mother of two children and also, I work with children. During the training, I managed to process and cope with some personal memories, traumas, and bad dreams. The most useful for me were the techniques that will help in further work with children. Everything was clear and easy to understand. Thank you for the training and for the work you are doing” – Anna Bazylyuk

“This topic is very relevant nowadays, because the war is going on. I work in a school where many children have seen the war with their own eyes, many of them are in an unstable emotional state. And this training helped me to enrich my baggage of knowledge, which I will use to help children. I am very glad to have attended this training. Thank you!” – Svitlana Cherapanova
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REFERENCE INFORMATION
International Charity Project “Helping Hand in Ukraine” exists since 2015. The Project aims to improve the socio-emotional and psychological state and wellbeing of children with war trauma and their families who witnessed and suffered from the war against Ukraine. The Project trains the trainers to work with the “Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology; provides psychological assistance to children and their parents with war trauma, teaching them skills of psychological self-regulation and self-assistance and techniques of relaxation; fosters cooperation with state social services in order to ensure immediate attention from professionals to cases of mild and severe mental problems as well as constant aftercare and social support. More information about the Project is provided on the website of “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation.

Contact person for media: Olga Batiuk, mob. +38 050 359 7266 (Viber, Telegram, WhatsApp), olga.batiuk@gmail.com

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Serhiy and Yana Serhieiev are certified trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” Program. Previously, they lived in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, but due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, they moved to Kamianets-Podilskyy, Khmelnytskyi region. In their native Kramatorsk, Serhiy and Yana conducted “Children and War. TRT” therapy sessions for children and their parents, and also gathered groups of young trainers, guided and supported them, and were ambassadors of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project in Donetsk region.

After being displaced, they did not fall into despair because of their personal difficult circumstances, but on began to teach healing and self-help techniques to those who desperately need it. Moreover, at the moment there are many people from different regions of Ukraine in Kamianets-Podilskyy. So far, the trainers have already conducted 8 therapy courses for more than 100 children. The groups are held offline and online, the participants show positive results: they learn to overcome their fears and obsessive memories, become calmer and more self-confident, cope with the pain and difficult emotions associated with the war.

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From May to September 2022, thanks to the financial support provided by the Canadian donor TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, the team of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project provided psychological support to 739 children and 372 adults with war trauma in 22 cities of Ukraine. In addition, the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology was mastered by 401 trainers who took part in the training program within the framework of the Project.

“Our team has conducted therapy sessions for 77 groups of children and 45 groups of adults throughout Ukraine,” – says the Project’s chief psychologist Iryna Sukhova. – In particular, therapy sessions were organized in Kyiv, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Novoyavorivsk, Truskavets, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Volovets, Vinnytsia, Chornomorsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Cherkasy, Rybakivka, Tereshky, Kryvyi Rih, Starokostiantyniv, Selidove, Dykanka, Kremenchuk, Boyarka, and Korosten. The trainers who went through the program within the project taught children and adults the effective healing techniques and practice self-help skills to overcome the war trauma. Thus, 4 offline trainings were held in Pylypets, Dnipro, Kyiv, and Kamianets-Podilskyi; and 8 more trainings were conducted online. The participants “tested” the methodology on themselves overcoming their own fears and worries. Then during therapy sessions, they all received methodological support and supervision from experienced colleagues”.

The methodology “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” promotes the development of special skills in children and adults for reducing the psychological after-effects of trauma through self-help, relaxation and healing techniques in the face of intense war-related stress. It is designed to reduce anxiety and prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other complications in the future. And we see its effectiveness and simplicity and ease of using it on our own experience within the project.

The team of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project of the “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation expresses sincere gratitude to our Canadian partners, TELUS Friendly Future Foundation and HOPE worldwide Canada for their financial support, and also for their trust and long-term cooperation for the sake of psychological and emotional wellbeing of Ukrainians.
The results of our team’s work during May-September 2022 within the provided grant are presented in the report: http://hopeww.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/hhfu_report_may-sep_2022_hopeww_en.pdf

ABOUT METHODOLOGY
The methodology “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” is an effective tool of psychological self-help for people with traumatic consequences of war, natural disasters, and other cataclysms. It works well with both children and adults, as it is a result of the combined years of direct experience of working with child survivors of war and disaster. The methodology was developed in 1998 by professionals from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK, and the Center for Crisis Psychology in Bergen, Norway, and has been used after earthquakes in Iran, India, Chile, and China, the tsunami in South East Asia in 2000, as well as war conflicts in Africa, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine. The manual “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” has been translated and adapted by experts from the Ukrainian Institute of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Lviv, Ukraine).

Since 2015, it has been successfully used to teach trainers and to conduct therapy courses in Ukraine within the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, implemented by “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation with support of HOPE worldwide (USA) and HOPE worldwide Canada charitable organizations.

REFERENCE INFORMATION
International Charity Project “Helping Hand for Ukraine” exists since 2015. The Project aims to improve the socio-emotional and psychological state and wellbeing of children with war trauma and their families who witnessed and suffered from the war against Ukraine. The Project trains the trainers to work with the “Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology; provides psychological assistance to children and their parents with war trauma, teaching them skills of psychological self-regulation and self-assistance and techniques of relaxation; fosters cooperation with state social services in order to ensure immediate attention from professionals to cases of mild and severe mental problems as well as constant aftercare and social support. More information about the

Project is provided on the website of “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation.

Contact person for media:
Olga Batiuk,
mob. +38 050 359 7266 (Viber, Telegram, WhatsApp),
olga.batiuk@gmail.com

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New trainers who have recently graduated from the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” now use this methodology to conduct sessions for children and their parents throughout Ukraine and abroad. The sessions take place both offline and online, depending on the needs and capabilities of the group members. In the photos (and this is only a small part of the memories of this summer and the beginning of autumn) the sessions conducted by trainers Nadiya Bakhurinska, Nataliya Maslakova, Tetyana Maltseva (Beregovo), Anzhelika Lyashchuk, Nataliya Kushnir (Chernivtsi), Yulia Tomakh, Nadiya Andreeva (Korosten), Olena Sukhanova, Gulsem Havryushenko (Khutoro-Gubynykha village, Dnipropetrovsk region). All these trainers work selflessly, do not complain about personal stress in war conditions, but love and support children, share their experience and teach them practical exercises to help them to cope with stress, pain, losses, fears , and obsessive memories. And the children become healthier, they heal, they regain self-confidence, they start to dream again and hope for a better future.

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On October 20-22, 2022, a second “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” training was held in Chernivtsi, in cooperation with the Yuriy Fedkovich Chernivtsi National University. It was held as part of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project. The training was conducted for 26 participants by the Project trainers, Iryna Sukhova and Tetyana Oboyanska. In the future, they will help young and adult Ukrainians to improve their psychological health and overcome the consequences of war thanks to the unique “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” methodology – an effective tool of psychological self-help for people with traumatic consequences of war.

The training was held with the financial support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF). The grant expands a trauma therapy program to train the trainers to work with children and adults with war trauma. This is already the second training out of the 12 planned. The project is implemented by the “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” Charity Foundation with the support of American and Canadian partners, HOPE worldwide (USA) and HOPE worldwide Canada.

“Participants note the relevance of the topic,” says Iryna Sukhova, chief psychologist of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project, “since there are many internally displaced people in Chernivtsi who have lost their homes and relatives, and experienced terrible traumatic events during the war. Our training conditions have been quite extreme. The entire training was accompanied by air alarms, and for our own safety we went down to the shelter every time. But even there, in the damp dark shelter, the thirst for knowledge and the desire to help did not fade away, the training continued. As one of the participants said at the final round: “If in a dark bomb shelter during the threat of shelling, someone wearing vyshyvanka continues to conduct the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” Program – our Ukraine is invincible!”

Feedback from training participants:

“Everything was relevant and very much “on time”. Trying out all the techniques personally was the most useful. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the “healing” of our Ukraine!” – Evgenia Dudka

“I managed to touch on my personal traumatic events and process them. All the techniques and tools learned during the training were useful. I am grateful for the new knowledge and skills that I learned during these 3 days” – Maryana Pernai

“For me, the topic of the training was very useful and relevant, because I felt a lack of practical knowledge on how to help others and myself as well. I received a huge “backpack” of practical skills and healing techniques. I am sincerely grateful to the trainers and the organizers. I received plenty of ​​positive emotions and a desire to implement what I learned” – Mykola Ilashchuk

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On October 17, in Truskavets, the new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” Program were awarded by the certificates within “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project. Psychologists and volunteers of the “Voices of Children” Charity Foundation received acknowledgement of their new competences. They were trained in May and then during the summer months they worked – teaching children and their parents effective self-help techniques in conditions of war and stress, and also received supervision.
In the warm and friendly atmosphere of presenting certificates, the participants discussed their experience of working with groups, recalled difficult and funny situations with psychologist of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” Program of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project. We congratulate the new trainers and wish them further success in their work!

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