Children in Ukraine build resilience and cope with anxiety through art

Since late February, the student dorms of The Polytechnical Institute in Chernivtsi, western Ukraine have been used as a refugee centre for displaced families with children. The children, ranging from new born to 17 years of age, need both temporary and permanent shelter. More than a thousand people have sought shelter at the centre at some point during the last few months, the vast majority of whom have nowhere to go because their homes have been totally destroyed.

Can you imagine children who don’t play with a ball or ride a bike simply because everything was left behind in a house now destroyed by the war? This is reality for 69 children currently living at the Children’s Refugee Centre in Chernivtsi.

Olha Zaslonkina, the wife of VELUX Ukraine employee Oleksandr Zaslonkin, is a psychologist and art therapist and has been volunteering at the centre since it opened in February, helping children work through stress and anxiety.

“We have weekly art-therapy classes where we use creativity to help the children express their concerns, learn to cope with anxiety and fill them with inner strength,” says Olha. There is also an opportunity to spend time with pets to help relieve anxiety.“ Contact with animals and nature helps to stabilize our emotional state,” she explains.

The Employee Foundation made a generous donation which supported the purchase of different sports equipment and art supplies for children at the centre. This has contributed to making their days feel a bit more normal and helps them deal with the ongoing stressful situation currently consuming their everyday life.

“Nobody expected a war, so we don’t have specialized centres for internally displaced persons in our city. This function was mostly taken over by educational institutions like kindergartens, schools, colleges and university dormitories. Although the local government, together with some charity organizations, donates food and medicine, we still lack entertainment and educational tools for the kids.”

“With this financial support, children are being able to distract themselves from what’s going on, and experience a somewhat normal childhood,” beams Olga.