Ukrainian NGO opens art therapy workshop to support veterans’ rehabilitation

The Military Souvenir public organization opened a workshop to manufacture wooden products, which will serve as art therapy for war veterans.

Rubryka reports, citing the Facebook page of the Zhytomyr City Council and Suspilne.

What is the problem?

Ukrainian defenders returning from the war usually have disabilities and need society's attention. It is challenging for them to adapt to a quiet life because, in addition to physical injuries, they typically have psychological ones.

What is the solution?

War veteran Yurii Lysak opened a craft workshop for working with wood for the military with a United Nations Development Program grant.

The new organization will allow war veterans to feel that they are needed. Also, veterans who became disabled due to the war will be able to restore their mental health.

"When I left the ranks of the Armed Forces, it was difficult for me to find a job, so I started making wood products. My first piece was a wooden snowman. To make it, I only had a drill, a grinder, and a jigsaw," says Yurii. "I thought that if I had more tools, I could do something more interesting and involve my fellow soldiers in the common cause. That's how the idea to create a workshop arose."

How does it work?

As Lysak said, the workshop has an area of more than 120 square meters. For the amount of the ₴120,000 grant, he purchased equipment for working with wood: electric and hand tools for processing wood.

"The plan is to work in this workshop two to three times a week, for two to three hours, with five to seven people in groups. They will use manual equipment," Yurii said. "This will not be a carpentry workshop. These are craft products and manual work for developing fine motor skills. This is what switches the human brain. People start working here and with this."

According to reserve officer Volodymyr Solovian, when the boys work with wood, it will help them to distract themselves from the memories of the war.

"This will give them the opportunity to rest spiritually and morally, to distract themselves from the problems that haunt us today. This work that a person puts in is worthy of a positive assessment. It gives people the opportunity to feel in a normal environment after hostilities," says Volodymyr.

Veterans in the workshop can work with their hands, communicate with each other, feel supported, and master a new activity.

Lysak invites all soldiers who need moral and physical support and those who want to learn how to work with wood to join them on social media.

"There are two NGO groups: Military Souvenir and Wooden Crafts on Facebook, and anyone who wants to can join them. My phone number is also there," says Yurii.

As Rubryka reported, the newly built rehabilitation center St. Luke's Hospital was opened in Kropyvnytskyi. The Gen.Camp camp for the psychological rehabilitation of Ukrainian children affected by the war is also starting in the Carpathians. This is a free initiative of the public organization Gen.Ukrainian, which operates under the patronage of the Olena Zelenska Foundation.

Rubryka reported about the Nezlamni rehabilitation center in Lviv. There, Rubryka journalists met the people who implement the UNBROKEN project — a solution that changed the approach to prosthetics and rehabilitation in Ukraine.

Read more in the article: Treating and rehabilitating Ukrainians in Ukraine: Nezlamni Rehabilitation Center in Lviv.