Mobile veteran support groups start operating in five Ukrainian regions
Facebook / Оксана Коляда
Mobile support groups are already operating in five regions of Ukraine to support veterans and their families who struggle to handle casual duties.
They provide services in the smallest towns, the Ministry of Reintegration reports.
What is the problem?
Many veterans who return from the battlefield struggle with completing basic tasks and communicating with civilians. Being detached from the peaceful world around them, they often seek help to come as quickly as possible.
To ensure the veterans are not left alone, the Space of Opportunities NGO launched the initiative of starting mobile groups in mid-December 2023.
What is the solution?
The teams are already supporting veterans and their families in Mykolaiv, Odesa, Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytskyi regions. The same mobile groups will also start operating in Sumy, Chernihiv, and Rivne.
Volunteers believe veterans and their families, even in the most remote communities, can receive high-quality professional services, including preparation of documents, obtaining benefits and social guarantees, legal counseling, and psychosocial support.
How does it work?
The teams include lawyers, psychologists, and case managers. The off-road vehicles for the teams were donated by one of Ukraine's large oil and gas companies.
One of the cases the team cites is in December when volunteers visited Tetiana, whose son went missing at the front. The woman was looking for help from a psychologist and a lawyer.
Ukraine is expanding the provision of free psychological assistance for veterans and their families.
Volunteers presented the Trenvet UA app, which helps veterans and military personnel receive free sports rehabilitation in western Rivne.
The results of the online survey "Portrait of a Veteran" show that almost 41% of veterans need financial support, and 18% need medical care.
In the new year of 2024, a pilot project to introduce the institute of a veteran's assistant is being scaled up across Ukraine, training approximately 15,000 veteran assistants.
