Warsaw, Poland
CNN
—
Eight-year-old Yana was going to gymnastics class six days every week at house close to Odessa, Ukraine.
Now, she will solely observe by herself on a patch of open ground in a refugee heart right here within the Polish capital.
Yana is one among tens of millions of Ukrainian kids dealing with change: pressured to go away her house, her passions and her father behind within the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of their nation.
“There have been explosions there and stuff like that,” she stated quietly, recalling that she heard greater than she really noticed.
“I’m simply not afraid of it very a lot,” she added.
Her mom, Liudmyla Bats, stated Yana could be very sturdy and stated she hopes that when her daughter tells her she is doing OK, she actually means it.
However sitting in her bathrobe after a welcome bathe on the Area Ursynów, a sports activities complicated now used to quickly home Ukrainian refugees, Bats talked about her personal trauma.
“Even right here, each time once I hear some sounds and when the airplane is flying, I’m afraid,” she stated.
Bats and her kids are benefiting from the well-documented generosity of the Poles – shelter, meals, even a desk well-stocked with pencils and paper for Yana to make use of whereas attending digital college on her telephone.
However much less identified is the assistance Polish leaders and personal organizations are offering Ukrainian refugees coping with what we are able to’t see: the psychological well being of the largely girls and kids who crossed the border.
Greater than 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland, and, in keeping with the Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, there are some 300,000 within the capital metropolis alone. He stated 100,000 are kids and already 15,000 Ukrainian refugees are enrolled in Polish faculties – some together with his personal kids.
“I discuss to my children as a result of they attend Warsaw faculties with Ukrainian children. They are saying that these children are extremely resilient, however you by no means know what’s beneath the floor. And, in fact, this is without doubt one of the main issues. I imply, well being care – psychological well being,” the mayor stated.
Trzaskowski stated he has quickly directed lots of the metropolis’s psychiatrists, psychologists and different psychological well being social providers to assist the Ukrainian refugees.
Non-public organizations are prioritizing the care too – leaving leaflets at practice stations for arriving refugees to see.
“We’re all traumatized, particularly after what we’ve seen previously days on tv. And a few of these children have been simply escaping bombs. A few of them have been seeing members of their household being killed. I imply, that is one thing that we now have issues imagining,” Trzaskowski stated. “We’ve got a whole lot of traumatized children in Warsaw who need assistance.”
“My associates from Ukraine inform me that they’ll give attention to preventing and rebuilding their nation as a result of we handle their households and their children,” he added, referring to the boys who stayed behind.
The emphasis on psychological well being is a really trendy strategy to caring for warfare refugees. It wasn’t that way back that it was an afterthought, if a thought in any respect.
At a Jewish Hillel Heart in downtown Warsaw, Milena Konovalova leads group remedy classes for refugee girls. She just lately fled Ukraine herself.
“Each girl wants one other girl who can take heed to her,” she stated. “Earlier than the warfare in Ukraine, I labored as a girls’s psychologist. I labored solely with girls, and I perceive how necessary it’s for ladies to speak, to speak to different girls.”
Konovalova just isn’t Jewish, however the Hillel Heart is one among many organizations opening their doorways for all Ukrainians with any sort of want.
Throughout a current session, Konovalova and 5 different girls sat round a desk coated with rose petals in what she calls a girls’s circle.
The lyrics of the track “Be Your self” by Peruquois stuffed the room as the ladies took turns lighting candles. Feelings rushed to the floor. Tears flowed as the ladies linked and shared their experiences.
Whereas the ladies talked, their kids performed in a makeshift day care heart on the opposite aspect of the room. A few of them have been too younger to know, blissful simply to be enjoying with toys and different kids.
However a few of them do perceive. Younger women like eight-year-old Antonina, who stated she is aware of that she’s in Poland due to the warfare.
“As a result of Putin has one thing in his head,” she defined.
It seems not all grown-ups make good choices, we stated throughout our dialog.
“In terms of Putin, sure,” Antonina shot again.
The refugee kids, identical to kids in america, have been already coping with psychological well being challenges from being remoted throughout nearly two years of the pandemic. Now, having left the nice and cozy comforts of house, to not point out their fathers who stayed in Ukraine to struggle, any transfer towards a pre-pandemic normalcy has been cruelly interrupted.
Their moms throughout the room are searching for emotional assist to assist themselves and put them in a greater place to deal with their household’s wants and traumas.
“After we discuss to different girls, we hear that we now have the identical issues, and once we see our scenario from a distance, we are able to remedy it,” defined Konovalova.
“Probably the most outstanding trauma is that girls don’t see tomorrow. They don’t seem to be certain, they doubt, they’re frightened or scared, they don’t really feel protected anyplace,” she stated. “And it’s necessary to convey to them that there’s tomorrow, that they’re in a heat and protected place, that the kids may have porridge tomorrow, and she is going to be capable of tuck him in, go for a stroll with the kid. It’s necessary to know that tomorrow will occur.”
