SUPPORTING UKRAINIAN MOMS’ MENTAL HEALTH AT A CRITICAL TIME
“We were terrified, but our conversations with the psychologist changed our attitude toward the events.”
Halyna is a mother of five children, three of whom are sponsored through the Ternopil site in Ukraine. The terror she describes is how she and her family felt at the onset of the war with Russia. But Halyna had a strong source of support and encouragement on her side: Tetyana.
The Ternopil sponsor site hired Tetyana to lead the annual Responsible Parenting and Happy Family Program. As a psychologist and teacher, Tetyana led Halyna and a group of 105 parents through a year-long program that focuses on family relationships, emotion management, and inter-personal communication skills the families were going to need in a time of humanitarian crisis.
“The psychologist helped us through the initial crisis,” Halyna describes, “and instead of crying with fear we started helping our army and refugees from the east as much as we could.”
Orysya is a mother and grandmother who participated in Tetyana’s program. Chalice had come into her life at a critical time. Her son, Andriy, has Down Syndrome, and they were at a crossroads about what the right educational programming would be for him.
“I remember feeling like I was drifting through life, not knowing what to do next,” Orysya writes. “I forgot that I was alive and that I was a woman. At that moment we got sponsored by Chalice.”
Now as a mother of a sponsored child, Orysya could take Tetyana’s course.
“When I was taking the course, I remember thinking what happiness it was to listen to the psychologist,” she recalls. “She brought me back to life and made me analyze my lifestyle, reminding me that I was a woman, that I needed to look after myself.”
“She taught me how to solve problems. I remember using tantrums and tears to solve an issue, but it turned out that you could think about it, discuss it, look at the situation from different points of view and solve it.”
Olysya was so impressed, she brought her 13-year-old granddaughter to meet Tetyana. After they met one-on-one, her granddaughter was a stronger, calmer communicator.
“If I had had this knowledge twenty years ago, my life could have been so different. I'm grateful to God for the opportunity to be a part of Chalice and gain this knowledge and experience in psychology.”
The Ternopil site is running the program again this year. This cohort of 146 parents will get group sessions as well as individual counselling. Crucially during this time in Ukraine, the sessions will give parents tools to navigate the stressors and potential conflicts that arise on the family and community level as a product of the military conflict with Russia. They will also learn basic skills to support their children and family members through situations related to their experiences of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
“I feel like I opened a new door into a new life and a new world,” writes Halyna. “On behalf of myself and other participants I express my deepest gratitude for your donation and for this opportunity to take the psychology course. May God watch over you always.”