Young team comes together to support teens amid war
Teenagers have found a place to seek help and advice, thanks to a UNICEF UPSHIFT project.
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Life changed forever for Ukrainian families on 24 February 2022. Amid a devastating war, living conditions quickly deteriorated, with many parents and children forced to hide in bomb shelters for weeks. Millions of others had little choice but to flee to other cities, or even other countries.
In the hope of helping teenagers cope, Oleksii Lytvynenko, 22, joined the UPSHIFT programme, a project supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Government of Japan which works to empower young people.
“The war exaggerated many problems that the teenagers faced,” says Oleksii. “It is issues such as about personal space, evacuation, loss of loved ones, and many others,” says Oleksii Lytvynenko, 22.
As a member of the Teenage Island team, he created a safe virtual space using the Discord platform, which is popular among teenagers. Here, teenagers can communicate with their peers and receive professional psychological help.
“This is a safe place where you can get away from unwanted reality,” says Oleksii. “At the moment, for us, that is the war.”
Oleksii and his team organise group consultations with a psychologist, in which they discuss issues and how to deal with them. Each participant can submit a request anonymously, and a specialist will comment on it.
“Most often, they raise problems such as adaptation to new conditions, conflicts with classmates, as well as the loss of loved ones,” says Anna Buinova, a co-founder of the project. “Rape, suicide attempts and eating disorders are less common.”
The team also recorded a series of podcasts to help reach an even wider audience of teenagers. In it, a psychologist and a teenager – Sofia, 17 – discuss the various problems affecting Sofia’s peers.
“I have many acquaintances, in particular teenagers, who like to listen to something when they do some mechanical work,” says Sofia. “That’s why a podcast is just what you need. It’s also useful.”
And that is not all – the team also organised creative writing classes and a ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ adventure, giving teenagers an outlet for their emotions. All of this takes place through a single online platform.
“It’s great that the team chose Discord,” says Sofia. “It’s really cool because all my friends know this platform. They often spend time there.”
As well as giving teenagers a place to find help and advice during wartime, the team has also given them a way of making new friends.
“I get incredible satisfaction from what I do,” says Anna. “Especially when I help the teenagers. They thank me, say that this is a really useful thing. Teenagers see the meaning in this activity.”
UPSHIFT Ukraine supports adolescents and youth, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, as agents of change. The project combines human-centred design workshops with mentorship to unleash the creative problem-solving skills of young leaders.
