Helping Hand

The goal of the Helping Hand project is to deliver humanitarian aid to internally displaced people (IDPs) from Eastern Ukraine and to provide Psycho-social therapy for children who received war trauma as result of military actions in Eastern Ukraine.

Therapy sessions based on "Children and War: Teaching Recovery Techniques" programme developed by professionals from Norway and Great Britain, translated and adapted by experts from the Ukrainian Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Lviv, Ukraine), help to prevent the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and depression in children who witnessed and survived war, and lessens the need for professional psychological treatment in the future. The project is very sustainable as the knowledge acquired by the trained therapists and IDP camp volunteers can be leveraged by them after completion of the training and therapy sessions. Helping Hand is organized by the non-political charity foundation HOPE worldwide Ukraine.

Ukrainian Weekly:

Last year in February, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, reported that “The conflict in Ukraine has deeply affected the lives of 580,000 children living in non-government controlled areas and close to the front line in eastern Ukraine.” Of those, 200,000 – or one in three – needed psycho-social support.

More than 215,000 were internally displaced. At that time, Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF representative in Ukraine, stated: “Two years of violence, shelling and fear have left an indelible mark on thousands of children in eastern Ukraine. As the conflict continues, we need to reach these children urgently to meet their physical as well as psychological needs.”

 

Full Report from UKRAINIAN WEEKLY: