Healing Through Art: Supporting the Mental Health of Displaced Youth
For a fifth year now, our entire country wakes up in the middle of the night to the sounds of hostile aerial attacks. From Lviv to Mariupol, from Kharkiv to Kherson—no corner of Ukraine is truly safe.
However, there are children who require our special attention: those whose families were forced to flee their homes in frontline regions to seek refuge in safer areas. A child's fragile, still-developing psyche is often unable to process these events or easily cope with such severe adversity. As a result, these children frequently withdraw, become socially isolated, and in some cases, even experience speech regression.
To address this, the Kharkiv team of the Synodal Department of Social Service and Charity of the OCU "Eleos-Ukraine," in partnership with LWF Ukraine, has organized group psychosocial support (PSS) sessions for internally displaced (IDP) children and adolescents in the city.
One such initiative was the "Magic of Color" session, aimed at supporting adolescents' mental health through creative expression. Painting plaster figures is not as simple a pastime as it might seem at first glance. This activity operates on multiple therapeutic levels:
- Psycho-emotional support: While the children are immersed in the creative process, a psychologist employs specialized MHPSS techniques to improve their emotional regulation and overall well-being.
- Color therapy: The visual combination of colors has a profound, soothing effect on the nervous system.
- Physical engagement: The detailed painting process promotes the development of fine motor skills, which is closely linked to cognitive function and stress relief.
Combined, this holistic approach yields remarkable results even after just one session.
"The children left the event in such an uplifted mood, which even I didn't expect. They are eager for these meetings to continue and are already waiting for the next one. Honestly, it inspires me too," shares project psychologist Kateryna Horbunova.