UKRAINE. FAMILIES IN WAR ZONE NEED URGENT HELP.

The war in Ukraine continues. And no matter how much we want to rest, no matter how much we want to close our eyes and imagine that this whole nightmare is not happening, we continue to work.

We feel a lot of support from all over the world and it gives us strength. During this time, we learned new skills, learned to work, develop and help people in unprecedented emergency conditions.

Odesa remains one of the most important cities that receives migrants, more than 70 thousand internally displaced people live here today, and millions of people have fled abroad through Odesa.

People continue to look for safe places. They come from war zones, from de-occupied locations, and our Accommodation Center in Odesa accepts them. Since the beginning of 2023, the center has provided 170 people with housing, necessary things and full meals. We evacuated 323 people with our transport.

The foundation works not only with families living in the center, but also with other migrants in the Odesa region and with local families with children affected by the war.

Thus, 94 people received legal assistance and assistance with documents, 258 people received medical assistance, and 250 people received humanitarian assistance in 2023.

This months, the Foundation received an urgent request for assistance from the municipality of Ochakov, Mykolaiv region. A small community was subjected to a terrible bombardment. More than 5 thousand private houses were damaged.

We organized a team of workers, bought building materials and hurried to Ochakov. Thousands of windows and roofs needed restoration. And we have helped hundreds of local residents renovate their homes and survive the cold period.

We pay a lot of attention to psychosocial assistance to children and adults in order to overcome post-traumatic symptoms, stabilize their condition, provide them with resources for establishing life in new conditions, and teach them useful skills. 415 people received such support in individual or group format in 2023.

We would like to share with you a few stories about our clients.

Karina's story:

Karina came to Odessa from the city of Kramatorsk, from where she fled with her two children from constant shelling and mass destruction. She arrived at the Foundation's shelter with little to no luggage.

She said that most of her house was destroyed. She and her family managed to escape to the bomb shelter, but it was dangerous to return to the apartment for personal belongings, as the building could collapse at any moment.

The loss of the house was a difficult test and deeply traumatized Karina. The depressed psycho-emotional state of the woman not only deprived her of strength and resources for action, but directly affected her daughters, whom she takes care of alone. Karina did not know how to calm the children and explain to them the changes that are happening to the family. The girls, in turn, showed their own experiences and anxiety with the help of hyperactivity and hyperexcitability.

The joint work of adult and child psychologists made it possible to stabilize relations in the family and Karina's psycho-emotional state, after which she was redirected to the Foundation's case manager.

During the accompaniment, the Fund’s employees helped Karina draw up documents for obtaining the HPE status and payments, provided housing first in a shelter, and then helped to find and rent an apartment, helped to get a doctor’s referral and conduct medical research, conclude a declaration with a family doctor and choose glasses for her daughter, who has a vision problem.

The resilience of Karina's family has been significantly strengthened, but our staff continues to keep in touch with her and provide support. The woman continues to attend consultations and shows success in working with emotions, feelings and their control.

Story of Boris and Olga:

Boris is a veteran and participant in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2016. Due to age and shell shock, he was unable to return to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the time of the full-scale invasion. But the war itself came to his house and destroyed it during a rocket attack in the city of Mykolaiv. He and his wife were left without housing, belongings and most of the documents. Boris's family was received in Odessa by friends. Initially, his wife, Olga, asked the Foundation for help in restoring documents. The staff of the meeting group noticed the woman's anxiety and offered to just talk to a psychologist.

Simple human attention and conversation allowed Olga to open up. On her first visit to us, she just talked and cried a lot... During further work, the psychologist noticed Olga's symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. At the same time, Boris, who also visited a psychologist, experienced sleep disorder and emotional instability - from aggression to complete apathy and helplessness.

For two months, the Foundation team managed to achieve sustainable positive changes in the psycho-emotional state of each of the partners. In part, the climate in the family was improved by the support of the case manager, who helped in the shortest possible time on issues such as the restoration of documents, the search for work and housing, consultation with a psychiatrist and therapist, drawing up a security map, access to humanitarian assistance, etc.

Despite the confident positive dynamics, we recommended that the family continue psychotherapy sessions already in a family format, which will allow Boris and Olga to be more attentive to each other's feelings and not withdraw into themselves.