‘Thanks to the classes, I feel better’: the vital role of psychosocial support for Ukraine’s displaced people
When the conflict in Ukraine escalated in February 2022, Valentyna’s town in the easternmost Luhansk region was shelled several times and her home was destroyed. The 64-year-old reluctantly packed the few belongings she had left into a single sports bag and fled.
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) helped Valentyna with supplies, giving her footwear and clothing. “All my clothes are from the URCS,” she says. “It was a relief when they helped.”
Now living in the western Khmelnytskyi region, Valentyna says weekly URCS-run psychosocial activities have helped her to rebuild her life and foster a resilient attitude to cope with living through the ongoing conflict.
“It was very difficult. But they helped me to see that life is too short, it can stop at any moment,” Valentyna says. “That’s why it’s important to try everything and not to be afraid.”
The UCRS provides a range of mental health and psychosocial support services. Photographs: Mykhaylo Palinchak/Panos/British Red Cross
As of December 2023, an estimated 3.7 million people were internally displaced within Ukraine, according to the Migration Data Portal. The URCS has 5,000 staff and 8,000 volunteers working across Ukraine, delivering relief items to displaced people, providing medicines and supplies to healthcare facilities and providing psychosocial support.
Millions of Ukrainians, like Valentyna, have faced traumatic experiences. “According to the [Ukrainian] ministry of health, as of today, we have 15 million people in Ukraine who require some kind of mental health and psychosocial support,” says Anna Didenko, head of the rehabilitation and support department of the URCS.
As a result, the URCS has expanded its provision of mental health and psychosocial support services, such as group or individual sessions, training or counselling, since the conflict in Ukraine escalated. More than 650,000 people have received psychosocial support since February 2022, Didenko says, and more than 550 volunteers and 150 staff are currently involved in providing mental health and psychological support activities across Ukraine.
UCRS staff and volunteers deliver relief to displaced people; Valentyna (bottom left). Photograph: Mykhaylo Palinchak/Panos/British Red Cross
“We aim to support people in need, as much as we can,” she says. “We provide support for everyone – for children, adults, family members of veterans, and people with disabilities. We get requests from wives waiting for husbands to come back, and from families who have lost family members.”
Across Ukraine, the URCS runs group activity sessions. Often these are attended by internally displaced people like Valentyna, who have lost their homes due to the conflict.
The activities involve a combination of talking and activities such as sewing, making toys and art. “We always start by saying what good we have done for others and what good others have done for us,” Valentyna says. “The classes were interesting and I enjoyed communicating with other people. Thanks to them, I feel better.”
During the activities, participants also learn new skills. “We made toys … and people give (them) to children at the railway station,” Valentyna says. “The distraction helped me and the things we made were for a good cause.”
Valentyna also learned psychological first aid techniques in URCS sessions. “I know how to calm other people down, as well as myself, using breathing techniques and as a result I am really confident,” she says. “I never felt so confident before.”
Anna Didenko. Photograph: Oksana Parafeniuk/British Red Cross
This newfound confidence led Valentyna to try yoga for the first time. When her younger sister invited her to her first yoga class, she initially refused, saying she was too old. “But after the activities provided by the URCS, I changed my mind,” Valentyna says. She now attends classes every week.
Currently working as a cooking assistant in a prep kitchen, Valentyna still uses the skills she learned from the URCS. “I am able to knit rugs and make candles on my own at home,” she says. Valentyna has also recommended the URCS activities to friends, “so they can become part of the community too”.
The URCS doesn’t just help adults like Valentyna. It also provides psychosocial support activities for children. For example, volunteers and staff may ask children to use modelling clay to express what they are afraid of, or to draw an image of a place that makes them feel safe. “We ask children how they imagine a safe space, when they close their eyes. Then each time they feel very sad they can think about this space and what they feel when they’re there,” says Didenko.
URCS also works in schools, where children may be asked to create a map of their neighbourhood together – marking the local school and their houses – to get them to work together and better communicate with each other. “The idea is to bring them together and find things that unite them so they can be connected to each other, to their family, and to society, making them more resilient, so they can learn to deal with stress or hard emotions using the resources they have around them,” she says.
A URCS volunteer distributes donated shoes to a displaced woman. Photograph: IFRC
This psychosocial support is an important pillar of the URCS’s work in Ukraine. “The conflict is ongoing and there is no place in Ukraine where you can feel safe,” says Didenko. “Psychosocial needs will not end tomorrow. Even if the conflict ends, decades will be needed to help people to recover fully. When we think about mental health and psychosocial support, we need to think about long-term planning.
“So many people have been displaced,” she says. “There are huge numbers of people who have experienced traumatic events. We need to pay more attention to mental health.”
Despite the ongoing conflict and suffering caused, Valentyna is able to feel more optimistic about the future, due to the help of the URCS. “I have a dream – I want to return home,” she says. “In the meantime, I am open to opportunities; any training, any activities. I am ready to learn something new and acquire new skills. Life is too short not to.”
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