Viktoriia from Sumska Oblast dedicated her entire professional life to children, working for many years as the director of a kindergarten in the border village of Khotin. She knew every child by name, found time to talk with everyone, and celebrated the little ones’ successes. She didn’t just work in her field, she lived for it.
Everything changed after the full-scale invasion began. Her native village came under daily shelling, people started to be evacuated, and the kindergarten was closed. Viktoriia also had to leave her home and ended up in Sumy. Having lost her beloved job and her sense of home, she felt a deep inner emptiness.
“I was close to depression. It seemed I was all alone in this world. There was no understanding of where to go, how to live on, or what to do. Absolutely nothing brought me joy,” recalls Viktoriia.
Later, completely by chance, she learned about the opportunity to receive psychological support from our foundation as part of the Lifesaving: Protection, Shelter, and WASH for War-Affected Regions project. In Sumy, she signed up for an individual consultation with a psychologist from the mobile team. According to her, this was an important step toward emotional healing. Together with the psychologist, Viktoriia gradually worked through the pain of loss and the feeling of powerlessness and managed to find inner resources.
“In my work with Viktoriia, I used metaphorical associative cards (MAC), which helped her safely access and overcome deep and complex experiences related to her traumatic experience. Each of our meetings brought her closer to inner recovery,” says Dmytro Kondratenko, a psychologist with the Sumy mobile team.
After therapy, Viktoriia not only managed to stabilize her emotional state but also found the strength to help others.
“I felt alive again: energy and the desire to move forward appeared out of nowhere. And then Dmytro, noticing my changes, suggested I join an event he was organizing for children. I agreed without hesitation and found myself needed once again,” says Viktoriia.
Psychological assistance within the project is free of charge and is provided in the frontline communities of Sumska, Zaporizka, Mykolaivska, and Chernihivska Oblasts. Up-to-date information about the locations and working hours of the mobile teams is regularly published on the official websites of local self-government bodies.
The project is implemented by the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” in Zaporizka, Mykolaivska, Sumska, and Chernihivska Oblasts in partnership with the charitable organization Malteser International, with the support of Aktion Deutschland Hilft.