A brighter future for Ukrainian youth in Poland starts with their mental health
How we’re helping adolescents who have fled the war in Ukraine adapt to their new reality – and thrive
- Available in:
- English
- Polish
“For the first month I was not leaving home at all. I was not feeling good. It was difficult and I just wanted to come back home. I could not find the strength to even go out for a walk,” remembers 17-year-old Wiera from Kyiv “Now it is different.”
Wiera and her 10-year-old brother Jura and cousin Sasha, 13, arrived in Poland soon after the war in Ukraine escalated. Their journey by bus with their mothers was very long and exhausting but they knew they had to take it. It was not safe for them to stay at home. They are only three of the thousands of children who fled the war in Ukraine.
The separation from loved ones, confusion, upheaval, and in some cases grief, caused by conflict has a huge psychological toll on children. Common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression can double in emergencies.
Children like Wiera need early and consistent help to prevent more serious mental health issues in the future. Because of this, mental health and psychosocial support is included across all UNICEF’s refugee response work in Poland. One example of this are SUN Support Centres in Krakow.
“Trauma is a difficult phenomenon. It will keep reappearing, it cannot be healed in a flash, and it may progress gradually,” says Olena Horobets, a psychologist from Ukraine working at a SUN Centre in Krakow. “We first help children stabilize. We allow them to feel their feet on the ground. We provide support and give energy. Only then do they slowly begin to open up about what they have been through. It is only then when the wounds can be healed, and they can have a renewed hope for the future so that they can support themselves and their close ones so that Ukrainian families can be happy.”
SUN - Sunny Support Centres were established to help children like Wiera, Sasha and little Jura. The word “słońce” (English: sun) is pronounced in almost the same way in Ukrainian and Polish, which is what makes the name fitting for both Polish and Ukrainian families. The SUN Centres are UNICEF-supported safe spaces for children and adolescents from Ukraine who have been through difficult experiences, as well as for Polish children. There are eight such spaces across the Krakow municipality.
Common language, common ground
When Sasha first arrived in Poland, she enrolled in a Polish school immediately. But she found it difficult because she could not speak Polish. “For the first time in my life I was abroad, in another country. We have never travelled anywhere outside Ukraine and now, all of a sudden, we had to start a life in a completely new place. That was not our plan,” says Sasha.
Being able to communicate is the first step for children to make friends and better cope in a new reality. Polish language classes such as the ones organized in the SUN Centre help children and adolescents from Ukraine get along with their peers and adjust to life in a new country and cultural setting.
“I did not like it here at first. It was not nice. I could not understand anything, and it was difficult for me,” says Jura. “Now I have learned a bit of Polish and I have made new friends.”
In addition to Polish language classes children can get help with homework from Ukrainian-speaking teaching assistants. “The most important aspect is that children can speak in their mother language here. They are well-understood here. This is particularly crucial when getting tutored by Ukrainian teachers, who speak both Ukrainian and Polish. They do homework together which is a huge help," says Malgorzata Niewodowska, SUN Center Coordinator.
Ready to support
The specialists employed in the SUN centres include Ukrainian and Polish psychologists, as well as educators and therapists who have experience working with children in crisis situations.
“I know how to work with children. I used to do that in Ukraine and I am very happy I am able to help kids here as well,” says Yulia Hniezdovska, who works as a teacher at one of the SUN centers in Krakow. Yulia worked as a psychologist in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. When it became too dangerous for her to stay in the area, she came to Poland with her son, Semen, who is 10 years old. Yuliya is happy to be able to continue her work here in Poland and to help the children.
In the SUN centers, children can play, make friends, learn the language, and receive the psychosocial and mental health support they need to give them their best chances of adapting to the new reality.
The UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Poland works with partners across the country to deliver programmes, like the SUN centres, targeting mental health and well-being. This includes psychological first aid at Blue Dot Support Hubs at busy border crossings and transit points, supporting psychological services in the community as well as mental health support for children, adolescents and parents in daycares, schools and Spilno Hubs.
“Right after we arrived in Poland, we were afraid of everything. The sound of the sirens, alarms, ambulances. My son was very stressed. Now he is getting better. I’m happy I can help other children. I know what they have been through,” says Yulia.
