Mobile experts help youth tackle trauma of war
In Ukraine, UNICEF mobile teams are helping families to cope amid the ongoing war
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On a calendar hanging from her kitchen wall, 15-year-old Dasha has circled two dates in black pen: 24 February and 10 September. The first date refers to the beginning of the full-scale war. The second is the day when she returned to her home city of Izyum.
In between, for six months, she and her family endured isolation, starvation and fear.
"The main thing is that we all remain together, that none of us had to bury and grieve their loved ones"
However, not everything has survived the ongoing violence – the family’s apartment has been destroyed by a bombardment and Dasha’s mother, who suffers from asthma, has struggled due to the lack of medication. Dasha, too, now suffers from anxiety.
“I have poor sleep and poor appetite,” she says. “I often feel apathetic and don't want to do anything or even socialise. Of course, it's scary.”
Struggle to survive
Dasha was relieved when a mobile team run by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on the family and asked how they could help.
"I was glad to get the opportunity to work with a psychologist, as I wanted to understand the reasons for my condition,” says the teenager, who now receives a visit from the team’s psychologist once a week. “I realise that it was caused by the war, but it's hard to figure it out without expert advice."
A multidisciplinary mobile team is a rapid response team that provides psychosocial support for families with children and other people affected by the war. Each team consists of a psychologist, a social worker, a lawyer and a doctor. Mobile teams work in support centres for internally displaced people (IDP) and the liberated territories of Ukraine. They travel by car to the places where help is needed, but also provide remote consultations.
Needs in the city of Izyum are high. It is estimated that the war has damaged 70 per cent of housing here and there is still no stable gas, electricity or water supply. Svitlana, a doctor with UNICEF's mobile team, has seen many families with children struggling to get by. The team reaches around 150 families in Izyum per month.
"Children who have experienced severe shelling often need the help of a psychologist. Their moms and grandmas, who were left without medicines and not able to visit doctors, have to be referred to doctors. Many of them need support in registering for social assistance. Many families in Izyum are left without even the basics and they cannot deal with it on their own.”
Hope for future
Tension, indifference and anxiety – these are the three emotions that Dasha chooses from the cards presented by the team’s psychologist to describe the past few months.
“We were left without electricity and connection for so long that I forgot what the phone is,” she says. “I didn't know anything about my friends, I didn't know what was going on in the world. It was like a vacuum and I felt like I was turned off from society.”
But sessions with the psychologist are giving Dasha hope for the future once again. During the sessions, she discusses not only her fears but also her dreams and goals. In the future, she wants to become a chef and open her own café. And for now, she just wants to celebrate her birthday in peace – she will turn 16 on 24 February, the day the full-scale war broke out.
"Over six months, there was not enough food, not even mentioning sweets,” she says. “Sweets cheer you up and I always wanted them, but we didn't even have sugar. But I hope that now we can buy a cake.”
