The “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project of the Charity Foundation “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” cooperated with the “Tepli Doloni” children’s camp implementing its “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program for the camp participants. The camp took place in early June 2024 at the base of the “Zamlynnya” integration center in Zamlynnya village, Volyn region.

The children of the soldiers of Volyn border detachment of the State Border Service of Ukraine, as well as children with difficult life circumstances, deprived of parental care, who are in foster families lived through the ten days of unforgettable impressions. About fifty children of different ages enjoyed the rich program of the camp: various master classes, fun in nature, sports games, horseback riding, a trip to Lake Svityaz. All this happened thanks to the team of the NGO “PYATERNYA” and with the financial support of the Charity Foundation “Modern Ukraine”. In addition, Iryna Semenenko and Viktoria Parkhomenko, who were counselors in the camp, had the opportunity to conduct “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions. “This program has beautifully blended with ours. Collaboration of art therapy activities is good and necessary. Thank you!” – commented Tetyana Myalkovska, art therapist and head of the NGO “PYATERNYA”.

In the course of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions, Iryna Sukhova, the project manager, lead psychologist and supervisor of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, came to the camp and brought the children gifts from the Charity Foundation “HOPE worldwide Ukraine”: backpacks with art-sets that will help children improve their emotional state in the future. She also talked with the trainers about the specifics of working with children who have suffered from war or live in difficult life circumstances. Iryna also noted that the team of our project is happy to cooperate with new partners with whom we are united by caring for the children of Ukraine.

We are grateful to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation for the financial support of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions!

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On June 13, 2024, 28 new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program in Poltava have been certified. Charity Foundation “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” in cooperation with the M. V. Ostrohradskyi Poltava Academy of Continuing Education organized and conducted a training project for the educators of Poltava region.

“I’m glad that two powerful communities have met! – associate professor of the Academy, PhD in psychology, psychologist Ludmila Zhdanyuk, shared her impressions at the end of the project. – We have planned, organized, conducted and completed the first joint project that lasted three months.

Yesterday I listened to the final reflections of the participants and was amazed that despite the complexity of the topic (working with children who witness war), complicated own experiences, terrible life stories of children, the need to master new work tools, air alarms, buses that broke down, physical injuries and many, many other obstacles, the participants found a place for self-expression and creativity. They not only supported, motivated, empathized, cared, but also gave the joy of childhood!”

Iryna Sukhova, project manager and lead psychologist of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, psychologist Oleksiy Sukhov, and group coordinator Khrystyna Kravchenko awarded the participants with certificates. We would like to thank our new partner, the M.V. Ostrohradskyi Poltava Academy of Continuing Education, for fruitful cooperation! We are thankful to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation for financial support!

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On June 12, 2024, certificates were awarded to new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program in Kyiv. The project manager and lead psychologist of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, Iryna Sukhova, psychologist Oleksiy Sukhov, and the coordinator of this group of trainers, Olha Posternak, congratulated 24 new specialists from Kyiv, as well as Kamiansky, Dnipropetrovsk region, and Bila Tserkva of Kyiv region.

To receive certificates, after theoretical training all trainers conducted therapy groups for children and parents affected by war. Some sessions were held live, others online. “We chose the online format to provide an opportunity for people from small towns and abroad to join the program and process their traumatic experience,” said one of the new trainers of this group, Olha Khoptyar. – But when the participants and trainers faced problems with black-outs, we were surprised how motivated our participants were: they looked for Wi-Fi in cafes and asked to send materials for self-training. It inspired everyone: our work was very important.”

“The awarding of certificates took place on the day when there was a heavy storm in Kyiv: cars were “sinking”, city transport was at a standstill, the roads were collapsing,” Iryna Sukhova shared her impressions. – Therefore, unfortunately, not everyone was able to “swim” to the meeting place and take a joint photo. However, those who were absent sent congratulations in messengers. They received certificates later per mail. We wish the new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program further fruitful work!”

The project took place in cooperation with the Center for Professional Development of the City of Kyiv. We are sincerely grateful to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation for the financial assistance!

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On May 30, 2024, the certificates were awarded to 22 new trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program in Khmelnytskyi. Since early spring the new specialists have conducted group therapy sessions for children and adults. They were able to put into practice the knowledge they received during the training in Khmelnytskyi on February 29 – March 02, 2024.

Certificates were handed out by Iryna Sukhova, the head and psychologist of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, as well as Yana Sergeeva, a psychologist and coordinator of this trainers’ group. We sincerely congratulate the new specialists and wish everyone strength, inspiration and good results in their work!

Activities within the project were carried out in cooperation with CF “Rokada” (Khmelnytskyi), that we have cooperated fruitfully with for two years.

We are thankful for this cooperation! We are grateful to our partner, Canada-Ukraine Foundation, for the financial support.

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Almost all the participants of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions have one thing in common – everyone has been traumatized by war in one way or another. But groups are always different. There was a 15-year-old boy Vladyslav from Khmelnytsky in one of the therapy groups at the children camp. He engaged in activities actively, quickly got to know everyone, listened to their stories, tried to carefully ask questions. However, almost until the end of the therapy course he kept saying that he had no traumatic memories and participated only out of curiosity and a desire to learn healing techniques for the future.

When the group worked on fears, one girl said that she was afraid to return to Kherson, where she saw how her house was flooded. Then Vladyslav said that he understood the girl, because he was also afraid to return to the village to his grandmother. And without hesitating he told his story:

“In summer, I always went to my grandmother’s village, where I had my best friend, Anton. We had fun and every day was interesting and exciting. Two years ago, we went to the pond, caught some fish, we were so happy. After fishing, we were walking through the forest, talking, and suddenly we heard a sound. It was loud and seemed to be approaching us. Everything happened very quickly, maybe in a couple of seconds… I looked around and saw that a tree was falling on us. Anton somehow pushed me off the path, and the tree fell right on him…
He died on the spot. I was very scared, as if I were paralyzed. Then I started to pull him out and saw that he was not breathing, and his whole head was covered in blood. It was terrifying, I ran down the road and screamed, calling for help. He was buried, and I can no longer go to the village, I have never been there since that incident.”

Vladyslav covered his face with his hands and cried. He explained that after that incident he often has the same dream of a tree falling on Anton. And when he wakes up, he often sees his friend before his eyes and smells blood and hears the sound of a tree falling. Two years have passed, but it seems to the boy that it happened yesterday. He stopped going to the forest and fishing.

Continuing the sessions, the trainers stimulated the group to talk about useful and useless avoidance. They also asked Vladyslav what techniques he could use in such cases. The boy shared that he already uses breathing, listening and smelling exercises and carries an aromatic oil with him. He noted that techniques helped him relieve tension, so he plans to keep using them in the future. At the next session he brought a completed task on overcoming fear. He decided that he needed to resume his to trips to the village, step by step. On each step, he wrote what he had to do and drew Anton as his superhero with wings who would help him in everything.

On the photo, group therapy sessions “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” conducted in March-April 2024 in Lyceum #93 in Kyiv by the trainers of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, Alevtyna Hurska and Maryna Pavlus.

We are grateful to our partner, Canada-Ukraine Foundation, for the financial support.

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To work with groups of adults during the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions is always more difficult than with children. At least one or two participants have a skeptical attitude towards the program. In one such group for adults who came from the Kharkiv region, participants opened up gradually, were mostly passive, but took turns talking about themselves and practicing exercises. Nataliya was different, she did not want to talk about herself. At the first meeting she made it clear that the techniques offered by the trainers would not help her cope with her problem. When the trainers encouraged her to share, she replied that she would listen to others, and if she wanted to, she would then tell her story. Only at the fourth meeting was the woman able to talk about what happened to her. She immediately said that she did not believe in the effectiveness of the techniques and considered it all just playing. But every time she listened to the feedback of other participants and only then decided to try the techniques herself.

Nataliya told that since the beginning of the war, her village was occupied for some time, and then it was under intense shelling. Now her house is destroyed, there is no home to return to. And even these terrible events were overshadowed by the horror of what happened to her daughter. Nataliya remembers that bombings were very frequent, but the residents of the house learned to run outside for water between attacks. It was relatively quiet that day, her daughter said she would go get water as it was safer on that day. Nataliya was afraid to let her go, asked her to stay, but her daughter assured her that she would be careful. She said that explosions have not been heard for a long time, so everything will be fine. She was gone for about 20 minutes. Nataliya began to worry, until suddenly she heard the whistle of a rocket and an explosion very close to them. The woman ran out onto the balcony, saw her daughter lying on the street, many people around, and then an ambulance, a hospital, a disability…

At first, Nataliya thought that her daughter was dead, but then it turned out that she was injured by a rocket part. The woman realizes that disability is for life, thus it is difficult for her to accept what happened. She thinks every day how they should live on, how her daughter should learn to live with the trauma. After the sessions Nataliya began to practice the “Safe Place” technique and noticed that her anxiety decreased. She also really enjoyed using the exercise of strong positive self-affirmations. The woman started using it every time she noticed the appearance of negative thoughts. She also managed to perform the technique of choosing an imaginary assistant, who would help to cope with negative memories. However, Nataliya transformed this exercise. She didn’t imagine a superhero or a helper for herself, but thought of herself as a superhero for her daughter. At the last meeting, when everyone shared their impressions, Nataliya said that she felt better, became more emotionally stable, and almost accepted the situation with her daughter. They are now planning to prepare for prosthetics.

On the photo, group therapy sessions “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” conducted in March-April 2024 in Kotyurzhyntsi village, Khmelnytskyi region by the trainers of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, Olha Traichun and Nataliya Skrylnykova.

We are grateful to our partner, Canada-Ukraine Foundation, for the financial support.

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On April 15-19, 2024, another group of psychologists, teachers and volunteers, consisting of 60 people, participated in the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” online training. The psychologists of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project, Iryna Sukhova and Olena Bozhor, trained the participants. After the training, the inspired participants moved on to the next stage of their participation in our project – to organize and conduct group therapy sessions within the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program. All participants will receive comprehensive support from the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project and supervision from the experienced trainers.

We sincerely thank everyone for their interest and activity in education and wish them fruitful work with the children of Ukraine.

Special thanks for cooperation to our old friends and partners – CO “HOPE worldwide Canada”!

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In the spring, the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project in cooperation with the CF “SOS: Headquarters of Civil Defense” in Kamianets-Podilskyi conducted several “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” group therapy sessions for the elderly (60 years and older). The participants of the groups learned to recognize their psychological traumas, overcome the symptoms and collected internal resources to start looking in the future with hope. During their long lives, these people have accumulated a lot of pain, but also a lot of wisdom. The sessions were a kind of exchange – the trainers taught the participants recovery techniques, and the participants thoughts the trainers. In total, 42 persons took part in group sessions.

Comment from one of the participants: “I’ve been given many gifts throughout my life, and I was not limited in attention, but this gift… it’s from my childhood. I never had anything like this. Thank you for taking me back into my childhood!”

On the photo, group therapy sessions are conducted by Svitlana Huminska and Zhanna Tyatkova, trainers of the “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” program.

The sessions were held with the support of our partner HOPE worldwide Zurich.

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“Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” therapy sessions for children in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region were completed at the end of March 2024.

The trainers of the program Khrystyna Kypryanova and Leyla Kravchenko worked with the children. “Today we held a festive final “Children and War. TRT” therapy session, held within HOPE worldwide Ukraine project”, – shared Khrystyna Kypryanova. – The children are very satisfied, they have learned how to cope with their fears and anxieties, have become more open and now know how to take care of themselves and their loved ones. The most valuable thing was to see their sincere, positive emotions and smiles.”

The trainers thanked the parents of the participants for their trust, and the Kramatorsk Volunteer Center for the pleasant cooperation.

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On March 04-06, 2024, a three-day “Children and War. Teaching Recovery Techniques” training program took place in Poltava. 25 participants, school psychologists, teachers, social pedagogues, shared that healing and recovery techniques are exactly the kind of psychological tool that is now very much needed in schools with many children from IDP families. In addition, due to war events in the country, local children are also often frightened, alarmed, and apathetic. Therefore, teachers and psychologists should know how to help children. Trainers who already have practical experience with the program also joined the training. They shared their experiences and details of working with children and their parents with the group.

The training was conducted by the psychologists of the “Helping Hand for Ukraine” project – Iryna Sukhova and Tetyana Oboyanska. The event was held in cooperation with the Ostrogradsky Poltava Academy of Continuing Education and with the financial support of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

Feedback from participants.

Halyna Druzhynina: “Thank you very much for the resources, positivity, inspiration, for the opportunity to make sure that “I can!” For invaluable tools of working with children, for helping us and our children to feel happy”.

Svitlana Selvestrova: “It was very cool to be in a circle of like-minded people, to get such invaluable experience, this box of self-help techniques. I want to thank the trainers and organizers for the opportunity to switch, to recall that I also have a sense of humor and remember how to laugh, and enjoy the opportunity to learn something new (this feeling cannot be compared with anything)”.

Inna Bertash: “I am grateful the organizers and trainers of CF “HOPE worldwide Ukraine” the effective balance of knowledge that I will use for myself and people around me. The techniques and methods are super effective (I tried it on myself)!”

Vitaliya Yarosh: “Thank you, Iryna and Tetyana for effective healing and recovery techniques and tools. The training was interesting and intense. I will practice the knowledge I have gained with children and adults. After all, with many techniques, one can manage emotions and own condition! Thank you for your professionalism! ”

Alina Zenchenko: “I am thankful to the trainers of our project for intense, theoretically and practically meaningful training, positively colored, warm, atmospheric. I take with me th knowledge and experience, which, I hope, I will convey to children and adults. Thank you!”

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