“They Can’t Wait for the End of the Week to Visit Their Psychologist”: How Children from the Kherson Region are Overcoming the Challenges of the War
When Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Anastasiia and her two children—a nine-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter—found themselves under Russian occupation. It took them a month to escape their village in the Kherson region, and they left almost everything behind—no belongings, no food.
The family first moved to Kherson, where they had to stand in line for food starting at six in the morning, and later relocated to the Mykolaiv region. The children were exhausted and frightened, so Anastasiia reached out to the psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation.
“Parents don’t always notice changes in their children’s behavior because they themselves are under stress,” says Viktoriia Fedorchuk, coordinator of the Mobile Teams project in Mykolaiv region. That’s why it’s so important for adults to take care of their own mental state to be able to help their children in time.
“You don’t want people to see that you’re about to cry, but it just keeps coming out,” Anastasiia recalls what she felt back then. Now, she and her children never miss a session with the Foundation’s psychologists. The kids eagerly attend both group and individual sessions—they’ve become more active and cheerful and have made new friends.
“Now they even check in on my emotions,” Anastasiia beams.
“I don’t worry as much anymore because I know that Ukraine will win,” adds her son, Illia.
The entire Voices of Children team hopes and believes that this family will soon be able to return to their home and their village.