There is a metaphor in our project: when we learn techniques for overcoming post-traumatic stress, we seem to fill our imaginary “backpack” with various techniques and tools. With one tool you can overcome the fear of military equipment, with the other – to relax from stress and anxiety, the other – will help to establish a healthy sleep without nightmares. A complete “backpack” with psychological self-help techniques for every occasion and taste – this is what the participants of the groups take with them after completing the course of the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques”.
And we have a pleasant tradition to give young participants a real backpack with “tools” for art and leisure. For example, paints, air plasticine, albums and sketchbooks, stickers, puzzles, markers, toys. All of these are also “tools” to continue working on your memories and fears and just for a great mood.

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Sincere thanks to the psychologists and volunteers, participants of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, who have just completed a five-day training program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques” and started working with children and adults one or two weeks later. They gather groups, meet individually, teach everyone in need self-help techniques to overcome obsessive memories, fears, stress, anxiety, insomnia. Classes are held in different parts of Ukraine and abroad. Maybe not everything turns out perfectly, sometimes professionals have self-doubt, but more love in their hearts. Love wins!
More than 200 children and adults have already been able to take a course of 7 classes under the “Children and War” program and have learned to overcome the consequences of the trauma of war. Thank you for the provided photos to Olena Petrushkevych, Natalia Mudryk, Mariana Melnyk, Natalia Datsenko, Nina Kiyakh, Mariana Kozosh, Marina Sokil, Mariana Davydyuk, Oksana Fesenko, Victoria Polyuza, Svetlana Bilozerskaya.

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On April 5-8, Chernivtsi hosted a training on the program “Children and War. Teaching recovering Techniques” for psychologists, social workers and volunteers. Among the 29 participants of the event were local specialists and temporarily displaced persons. The training was conducted by the head and psychologist of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project Iryna Sukhova. We hope that thanks to the new trainers of the program, children and their parents who found temporary shelter in Chernivtsi will be able to receive psychological help.
We truly thank Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University for cooperation, whose leadership provided the venue for the event and expressed interest in spreading the program “Children and War” in the city.

Some feedback from participants.

Larysa Platash, Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Social Work, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University: “Learning is extremely useful from several points. First, it had the opportunity to update personal resources to overcome the confusion that arose with the start of the war. Secondly, it enriched the treasury of methodological resources in working with parents and children. Third, I can realize a real opportunity to help others, which is the focus of learning. Thank you for your useful practical work combined with theory. You are doing an extremely useful job”.

Maria Trifan, a specialist at the Chernivtsi City Center for Social Services: “At this difficult time, this is the acquisition of new experience and knowledge that will allow us to work with those who need it in the future. Interesting and simple techniques that can be used even when walking down the street. One of the techniques even helped me to get rid of the memory. Thank you!”

Margarita Kupchanko, operator-psychologist of the Municipal Contact Center at the Executive Committee of the Chernivtsi City Council (Hotline): “For me personally, training is very important right now due to the war in our country and volunteering. Self-help techniques (visualizations, art techniques) were useful. I filled my resource “backpack” to the top with new techniques and resources. Thank you!”

Daniela Cheban, a specialist at №16 Secondary School (Chernivtsi): “The training is very relevant, I received the tools to work with children that I have been looking for a long time. This course was especially resourceful for me, I found like-minded people with whom I can work and implement this project”.

Iryna Horozhanska, a practical psychologist at the Chernivtsi Professional College of Technology and Design: “I found a resource in myself, plus I received a certain therapeutic effect from the group. The training is thorough, informative, and no question was left unanswered. I am infinitely grateful to you, Irina, for deep knowledge, intelligence, experience! Thank you, Polina, for the wonderful organization of the project!”

Olga Luspenyk, private psychological practice (Chernivtsi): “Actual. Currently, there are requests from acquaintances of volunteers who accept migrants abroad and in Ukraine. The most useful were practical moments from the coach’s experience, exercises, metaphors. Thank you for this time, your support and presence”.

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On April 5-7, at the initiative of Christians of the local branch of the Kyiv Church of Christ in the city of Rzhyshchiv, Kyiv region, a training was held under the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques”. The territorial community of this settlement has about 10 thousand inhabitants, but since the beginning of the war in Ukraine the city has received many migrants. The event was attended not only by Christians of the church community, but also local experts from the Inclusive Resource Center and the Pii Secondary School, as well as some migrants. The training took place in the premises of the local Evangelical Church and with the support of the mayor of Rzhyshchiv Chornenka Kristina Ivanivna. “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project coach Natalia Podoliak taught ten new specialists to understand the nature of child trauma, heal these wounds through the “Children and War” program, and simple but much-needed ways to help children in this turbulent time in Ukraine.

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Another wave of training on working with the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques”. Thus, from March 23 to April 3, online trainings were held for 100 new specialists who are ready to actively work with children and parents affected by the consequences of hostilities in Ukraine. The training was conducted by Kyiv psychologists of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project Iryna Sukhova, Natalia Podoliak and Olena Bozhor. The geography of the location of the new coaches is huge. These are Vinnytsia, Melitopol, Khmelnytsky, Chernomorsk, Dnipro, Uzhhorod, Kyiv, Odesa, Kaniv and a dozen other cities of Ukraine. It is also France, Switzerland, Poland, Turkey, Georgia – countries where classes are planned to overcome the trauma of war for Ukrainian refugees.
We truly thank the Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University in Vinnytsia and the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky State Pedagogical University for their fruitful cooperation.

Here are the feedback from some participants.

Lilia Malyar: “The program is powerful, you really need to be bold to implement it. But we are strong, and who but us. Thank you very much for bringing me so professionally to the ideas that prompted me to work on myself as well. Thanks for the info. The techniques are great: to draw a dream and its positive ending, “butterfly”, drawing “What will I do after the victory” (Liz Bourbon’s technique was mentioned). May Ukraine prosper!”

Yulia Arsey: “Thank you for your training! In the online format, it is a bit more difficult to accept practical exercises, and your experience has kept all the difficulties to a minimum. I really want to become a practitioner in this program. You are great!”

Alla Fedorov: “Irina and Natalia, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to meet you and work closely. The program is very interesting and informative. I look forward to seeing you again. Peace be upon us!”

Anastasia Moroz: “Thank you for such valuable and important knowledge! I am fascinated by the presentation of the material and the opportunity to hear practical advice from your experience. My expectations were more than met. Ready to get started! Grateful!”

Oksana Savytska: “I sincerely thank you for giving me the opportunity to breathe new knowledge and experience. I’m quite a “bloated ball” now. We will help. This is our contribution to the Victory! I am very grateful, you are professionals, you are beautiful, you are lovely!”

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Today, during the war in Ukraine, children and adults from different cities of our country began to study self-help techniques under the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques”. Classes are held in Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Kryvyi Rih (Dnipro region), Sambor and Drohobych (Lviv region), Rybakivka (Mykolaiv region) and other settlements. The traumas of the war will be overcome for both young and adult Ukrainians thanks to a team of coaches who have just been trained in the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project under the “Children and War” program. Psychological support groups gather in schools, churches, libraries, social service centers, and some start their work online. Thank you, Vira Sharonova, Natalia Popyk, sisters Anastasia and Tadeya, Svitlana Olfirenko, Halyna Ozhubko, Maria Zamishchak, Olga Lapteva, Halyna Vasylat, for the provided photos and steadfastness and love for Ukrainians!

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On March 23-25, within the framework of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, a training on the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques” took place. The event took place in Boryslav, Lviv region. Today, this small town is filled with people who have left their cities and are seeking refuge, many of whose homes have been destroyed. Now there are more than 5,000 internally displaced persons, and people are coming and going … Locals are concerned about the new residents: they provide them with housing in schools and in their own homes, help with food, medicine and clothing. Master classes are organized here for children, and for adults they have the opportunity to participate in volunteer work and even conduct Ukrainian language courses.
The training was initiated by Vira Mykhailivna Starovoitova, a practical psychologist at the Boryslav Institution of General Secondary Education of the 1st-3rd grades №4 named after S. Kovalev, where training was organized for 20 specialists – school psychologists, employees of the center of social services, teachers, doctors. Iryna Sukhova, a Kyiv psychologist and project leader of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, taught them. They talked about psychological trauma, the consequences of military events in the psyche of children and adults, about ways to overcome these consequences. Participants asked many questions about children and parents, actively studied the practical techniques of the program “Children and War”. Here is the response left for the organizers by Olga, one of the participants of the event: “Thank you very much for the techniques and exercises, they are useful. But this is only part of what we received in 3 days. 80% – it was about us, our perception of war, working with our pain. That was the most valuable thing”.

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On March 16-20, the second online training on the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques” took place within the framework of the project “Helping Hand for Ukraine”. The event was attended by 68 specialists from different parts of Ukraine. They were trained by Kyiv psychologists and certified specialists of the “Children and War” program Iryna Sukhova and Natalia Podoliak. Many thanks to the team and partners of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” Project for such a quick response and dedicated work.

During the first month of the war, thanks to the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, 141 new coaches appeared in our country, and each of them will be able to provide psychological assistance to all victims of the war. Many of these specialists have already started working with refugees and displaced persons in Ukraine, recruiting groups in Poland, Germany and Spain. Some coaches are waiting for silence in their city to gather their children together and teach them healing techniques after the horror.

The Helping Hand for Ukraine is outstretched and has something to give. We are ready to help Ukrainians!

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In Drohobych, Lviv region, classes began under the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques” for refugees from the hot spots of Ukraine, who temporarily found their shelter in this city (currently more than 4,000 migrants live in Drogobych). Four groups for children and two groups for adults gather in the Lyceum named after Bogdan Lepky, as well as in general education schools, which have now turned into hostels for women and children evacuated from the shelled and occupied territories of Ukraine. Classes are conducted by trainers-psychologists who have been trained under the program “Children and War” quite recently: immediately after the start of the war. They treat their members with great love and care, help them cope with intrusive memories and nightmares, and together with them look for resources for a new life.

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On March 9-13, within the framework of the “Helping Hand to Ukraine” project, an online training was held under the program “Children and War. Teaching Recovering Techniques”. It was attended by 40 psychologists and volunteers from different parts of Ukraine: Kyiv, Lviv, Khmelnitsky, Chernihiv, Lutsk, Mykolayiv, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Berdyansk, etc. The training was conducted by psychologists and certified specialists of the program “Children and War” Irina Sukhova (Kyiv) , Natalia Podolyak (Kyiv), Tatyana Shkurskaya-Kuzmenko (Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky). The zoom format was used for training for the first time, but during this difficult time it was the only opportunity for learning. Sometimes the participants were forced to take breaks to hide in shelters during the air raid, and then they returned to the screens of their gadgets again. Also, during online meetings, some had interruptions in the Internet and electricity (there was no light.) But despite all the obstacles, the training was effective, each participant is motivated to provide psychological assistance to children and adults who have suffered from the war and are in places where refugees and in “hot spots” of Ukraine. The “Helping Hand to Ukraine” project plans to continue its work. Now more than 200 people are waiting in line for training. “I’m proud of the Ukrainian people who rallied around the trouble,” says Irina Sukhova. “Together we will overcome everything!”

The project expresses its gratitude for the cooperation of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky State Pedagogical University named after Grigory Skovoroda and Charity Center “Mercy Center” (Drohobych, Lviv region).

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