Ukraine emergency: an hope for future

by Mission Bambini
Ukraine emergency: an hope for future

Project Report | Feb 27, 2023
Ukraine emergency after one year

By Samuela Castellotti | Project Leader

One year after the start of the war in Ukraine, triggered by the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the conflict continues and there are no signs of a possible peace. However, the consequences, from a humanitarian point of view, are already evident, with a heavy toll of loss of life and the emergency associated with the large number of people under siege or displaced.

The Mission Bambini effort to mitigate the traumatic impact that the war has had on the lives of Ukrainian children and families who have come to Italy has continued during all these months.

After a needs mapping and some individual and group discussion moments with Ukrainian people, three major goals have been identified as priorities:

  • creating moments of semi-structured play and motor activities for school-age and pre-school children.
  • offering psychological support to adolescents and foster the construction/enhancement of positive social networks among adolescents;
  • offering psychological support (mostly informal) through psycho-educational interventions for parents (especially mothers);

As a consequence, a series of meetings was organized for each different target of beneficiaries:

Children:

The meetings with children had mainly a playful-sports purpose. Semi-structured play activities were organized with elements of psychomotricity aimed at encouraging constructive social interactions between children. Drawing of moments of previous life in Ukraine was promoted in order to bring out memories to the home and deal with possible related traumas.

Teenagers:

A circle of psychoeducational meetings aimed at promoting the building of positive bonds has been organized. During these moments of exchange, information was given on what may be the symptoms associated to trauma, such as being removed from one's country due to war, and the emotional state of the children was discussed. Next, a series of useful strategies were taught to the teenagers to cope with the difficulties that emerged (such as making new friends at school, language difficulties, desire to be able to return to sports), together with some breathing exercises or cognitive behavioral restructuring techniques.

Parents:

Meetings with parents have the dual purpose of building group relationships and providing useful information on managing everyday life, particularly related to moving around the city, health issues (general practitioner, pediatrician), useful information on Italian (L2 ) courses and finding employment. At the same time, the parents were supported emotionally with respect to the difficulties of fitting into a context so different from their original one and living in a continuous situation of non-stability

The continuation of the war situation is having heavy consequences on displaced families, who are seeing their time in Italy prolonged, compared to what was initially assumed, and are often unable to build a new future in our country. Our operators are therefore working to respond to emerging needs both in psychological terms and in terms of activities necessary to foster integration within the local context, in order to ensure the greatest possible well-being for the people intercepted.

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Organization Information

Mission Bambini

Location: Milano - Italy
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @missionbambini
Project Leader:
samuela castellotti
Milano , Italy

Funded Project!

Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.
   

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