Five thousand children are already provided with psychological support from the Humanitarian Center

According to estimates of medical specialists such kind of assistance is necessary now for all Donbas children to cope with the psychological consequences of war. Since the Psychological Service of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center started its operation, 5,000 children of different age were provided with psychological support. 

Humanitarian Center's psychologists are conducting diagnostic and remedial classes with children from Donbas in specially opened centers. Also the specialists work in schools of Donetsk, Makiivka, Mariupol, Slovyansk, Druzhkivka, Selidove, Luhansk, Krasnoarmiysk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk.

Similar group classes are held in schools to understand the general portrait of children's psychological state. The main goal of the group is to diagnose and find those children, who require an urgent psychological aid. Besides, during the classes Humanitarian Center's psychologists tell about stress and war, teach simple self-regulation techniques, discuss the current events, and help children to overcome their worries and fears through communication, active games and art therapy.

This week Humanitarian Center's psychologists visited Donetsk Lyceum #30. Unfortunately, children from primary school here know a lot about fear and how it appears; they even told adults about adrenaline. That is why we offered these schoolchildren to draw a safe place at our class. The point of the task is to draw a place where a child feels calm and comfortable. In other words, the best place for a child. According to psychologists, this helps to cope with fears: when a child feels worried or scared, he/she can go to this safe place in his mind, remember it, imagine what he/she is doing there, and the fear disappears. And here is an eloquent detail: some children asked adults how to draw basement or partition walls, because they know what war is. In the end of the class children should add an assistant in the drawing - their friend or protector. Some kids pained their mother, other drew an authoritative person, whom they trust and can rely on. According to psychologists, parents are most often the main support for children in fight against stress and psychological traumas.

It should be reminded that "Trauma of War" project was started in November 2014 to train crisis psychologists. Today this the only large-scale project in Ukraine, which is aimed at providing the maximum support to the residents of NGCA and IDPs in getting over the psychological consequences of the war.  

Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center invites children and their parents from Donetsk and Luhansk regions to psychological support centers as part of Psychological Support project.

KYIV PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT CENTER

Preliminary registration: over the phone: 044 502-52-17 or via email: isynelnyk@fdu.org.ua

DONETSK PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT CENTER

Preliminary registration: over the phone: 099 907-70-04 or via email: [email protected]

MARIUPOL PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT CENTER

Preliminary registration: over the phone:  099 907-70-04 or via email: [email protected]