Ukraine presents nationwide campaign for long-term mental health support of children hiding in shelters

Ukraine's Education Ministry and the East Europe Foundation have launched the #BraveKidsUkraine mental health campaign.

The initiative aims to create the most comfortable psychological conditions for children hiding in shelters during air raid alarms.

What is the problem?

Children can experience anxiety, stress, and even fear during an air raid as Russians intensify the attacks on civilians.

Last year, we realized that the problem of overcoming stress during air raid alerts was very acute, says Viktor Liakh, President of the East Europe Foundation.

What is the solution?

To help children feel more comfortable during air raids, Ukraine's Ministry of Education and the East Europe Foundation launched the #BraveKidsUkraine campaign to create the most comfortable psychological conditions for children in shelters.

Psychologist Svitlana Royz and I have developed a free online course for teachers on psychological safety. And now, with the start of the new school year, we decided to introduce this new initiative. Because we understand and know how important it is, emphasized Liakh.

How does it work?

Celebrities, opinion leaders, musicians, actors, and bloggers from Ukraine and abroad record short videos as part of the campaign, which contain words of support, wishes, exercises, games, and fun activities that can be easily repeated while in the shelter. These videos will help children to stay calm in the shelters during anxiety.

Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi was among the first to support the #BraveKidsUkraine campaign. In a video message to children, he emphasized that it is normal to be afraid for both adults and children. Even superheroes sometimes get sad and feel insecure, he said.

Safe conditions for children and educators are our priorities. The government has allocated $40 million to equip shelters in schools. I am proud of Ukrainian children – a generation of brave and extremely resilient people. That is why we have launched this campaign for preschoolers to teenagers, because we want them to feel confident and calm in the shelter, said Lisovyi.

The idea for the campaign came from the East Europe Foundation, which aimed to equip shelters in educational institutions last September. Communicating with children and teachers, the project experts realized how important it is to provide students with domestic and psychological comfort in such premises.

The child psychologist Svitlana Roiz says that this year's school starts with children who studied online last year and have no experience of staying in a shelter. It is necessary to take care of their support and stabilization.

It is difficult to predict how a child will react to stress. But the child's condition also depends on the adults who are around. This project gives a sense of support from people who are authoritative for children of all ages. They offer simple, sometimes funny, practices without preaching in a form that is easy to understand. And they make us feel resilient wherever we are.

The list of opinion leaders who have supported #BraveKidsUkraine is constantly growing. They offer children not only words of support but also interesting tasks, exercises, games, and challenges.

The #BraveKidsUkraine campaign is part of the Safe School program the East Europe Foundation implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, the State Emergency Service, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Previously, the government-backed network of educational, cultural, and volunteer spaces, "Honcharenko Center," launched a nationwide project to support women from military families.