Under the patronage of First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska the second session in the children rehabilitation camp Gen.Camp will start. Young Ukrainians who left without parents, survived the occupation, witnessed murders during the Russian aggression are getting help there. During the previous session, 30 children underwent psychological rehabilitation in Spain.
The founder of the camp is the Gen.Ukrainian non-governmental organization, which work is aimed at helping children with psychological trauma caused by Russia's war in Ukraine and minimizing their consequences in the future. Assistance to children is provided free of charge on the initiative and at the expense of private Ukrainian patrons.
The first session in the camp lasted from August 25 to September 25. Children aged six to 12 who witnessed murders, lost both or one of their parents, were under occupation, survived rocket attacks, as well as children with signs of psychological trauma (most often it is partial loss of speech, memory, sleep, digestion disorders) went through rehabilitation.
"Children can overcome post-traumatic stress almost 100 percent – of course, under the condition of proper therapy. This is very inspiring, because this is exactly what the whole country is fighting for – for the one hundred percent well-being of every Ukrainian," the first lady said.
The idea of creating the camp belongs to entrepreneur and public figure Oksana Lebedeva. The chief psychologist of the project is Oksana Shlonska, Ph.D. in Psychology, psychologist, psychotherapist with more than 30 years of experience, head of the Rivnovaha center in Kyiv.
The objective of Gen.Ukrainian is to help children overcome war trauma and their acute manifestations, learn to live in a new reality and grow up healthy and strong.
The organization also helps parents and guardians of young Ukrainians conducting educational workshops. Competent psychotherapists of Gen.Ukrainian teach how to recognize signs of mental disorders in a child's behavior, what to deal with it, how to offer help to the child and yourself.
The comprehensive program of psychological rehabilitation at Gen.Camp includes group therapy, individual therapy (each child is assigned a personal specialist, and a psychological profile of a child is created), behavioral therapy and art therapy, animal therapy and the Tomatis method therapy, developed individually for each child.
Participants of Gen.Camp can be children aged six to 12 who have pronounced signs of psychological trauma and need psychological help as soon as possible.
In order for a child to take part in the camp, it is necessary to fill out a questionnaire on the Gen.Ukrainian website (https://genukrainian.com.ua/anketa) and undergo an audio or video interview with the project curators to clarify data and get answers to all questions.
The initiative is being implemented with the support of the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the National Social Service, authorized adviser to the President of Ukraine on children's rights and child rehabilitation Daria Herasymchuk, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Barcelona, and the NGO BarrierFree.