Hotline 0800509001
en
en

Psychologists of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center are working with orphans in Donbas

11.11.2015

Starting from November 10, the Psychological service of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center is working in the children camp called the Emerald City, which is hosting the orphanages evacuated from Donetsk. Helping children from orphanages takes a special place in the work of our psychologists, because it is more difficult for children, deprived of parental attention and care, to cope with the consequences of war.

Orphans are more vulnerable, because they have a double psychological trauma. First they lost their families. Then they became the victims of war, directly or indirectly. Their orphanages and custody centres were evacuated, which is why children had to get used and adapted to new people and conditions. It is a huge stress to experience all this.

We were in the Emerald City a month ago. And we came back again to continue our work with children. Unfortunately, if children have no family, it is more difficult for them to integrate all this military experience and understand what is good or bad, what is scary or not, despite all the efforts of the staff in the educational institution. This is what the work of the Humanitarian Center's psychologists aimed at, as well as forming the new image of a child's "I" in those difficult circumstances that made kids change their life order and get adapted to the new features of the external world. The world, where aside from the lack of family there is an active war", – Aliona Lukianchuk, Coordinator of Psychological service at Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, explains.

The psychologists are planning two visits of mobile groups in November, they will hold five developmental classes with every child evacuated from the hot spots of Donetsk region to Sviatohirsk. There are 380 such children in the Emerald City. This is certainly quite a stress load for the camp's personnel, that’s why the Humanitarian Center's psychologists are planning to conduct trainings for the employees, to help them to cope with the responsibility. "It is very important for us to help the staff find new partners in their work. This not only facilitates the work of employees, but also helps children to improve their communication with each other and the staff," – Aliona Lukianchuk says.  

Psychological assistance is one of the main directions of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center's activity. Over 1,5 years of their operation more than 33,500 people got help, 30,000 of them are children.