Psychosocial support in reception centers

Both in the reception centers and in the host families, where they are hosted, children do not have adequate educational and psychological support to help them re-elaborate what they are experiencing. WeWorld, together with the local partner Smart Osvita (Ukrainian association of teachers and journalists active in the area for a long time), intervenes by offering activities and services that can help them regain a semblance of normality.

To do this, a Child Friendly Space have been created within each of the 4 reception centers. These are protected areas where children can experiment cooperative forms of socialization, rebuild emotional relationships with peers and adults, tell and elaborate their experience in a safe place, at a time when most certainties seem to have crumbled. Here, on a daily basis, educational and recreational activities are carried out by adequately trained educators, ranging from reading, art, music and drawing workshops, which differ according to the age group.

The project is aimed not only at children, but in general at displaced minors between the age of 5 and 17 years old, as well as their carers, mainly women and the elderly. For this reason, a listening and psychosocial support point dedicated to women and adolescents has been installed within each Child Friendly Space, where properly trained psychologists manage individual and group activities to help manage and process the trauma these people are experiencing. This type of psychosocial support and moment of confrontation and re-elaboration, even in community form, is very important for both teenagers and adults who suffer the stress of the conflict.