Ukraine 2022

Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, we have been carrying out emergency pedagogical missions in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. Since autumn 2022, a modular training course for pedagogues and psychologists has been taking place in Ukraine.

13.-24.03.2023: Introductory seminars in emergency and trauma pedagogy

From the 13th to 24th of March 2023, a team of 7 international and local trauma educators conducted two 4-day introductory seminars in Trauma Education in the western Ukrainian cities of Rivne and Lviv. In Rivne, the team worked with 58 teachers, social workers and psychologists, and in Lviv with 40 social workers and volunteers working in displacement reception projects in the city. The aim of the introductory seminars was to gain an understanding of the psycho-traumatological concept of trauma, the disorders that can develop as a result of traumatic experiences (PTSD), and to discuss the basic principles of Trauma Pedagogy.

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Start of module for training certified emergency educators

Since March 2022, Emergency Pedagogy has been supporting war-traumatised people in Ukraine, and in the neighbouring countries of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. In the first acute intervention, the focus was on stabilising children who had fled. In addition, people working with war-traumatised children and young people in Horodenka and in Krakow, Poland, were trained in emergency education. This was the beginning of a series of emergency and trauma pedagogy training units for educators, teachers and psychologists in the crisis region.

The growing need for knowledge about traumatology and stabilising, and emergency pedagogical methods prompted the Friends of Waldorf Education to offer a certified modular training course in trauma pedagogy in Ukraine. In a total of eight modules, 25 people from all parts of Ukraine are now certified as emergency educators. Some of them work directly in disputed areas, others have direct contact with internally displaced persons. The training of a local network of emergency education experts creates sustainable structures in the sense of helping people to help themselves.

Hungary: Activities for refugee families in Miskolc

At the end of March, an Emergency Pedagogy team from the Friends of Waldorf Education visited the Hámori Waldorf School in northern Hungary. The school community wanted to become active in the face of the situation of refugees in their town and help on several levels. The emergency pedagogical seminar inspired the school community to organise leisure activities for refugee families in Miscolc. Rita Kishonthy-Kardos, a mother at the school, reports for us on her impressions.

Emergency Pedagogical Workshop in Slovakia: "My experiences are still very fresh"

The Kiev Waldorf teacher Polina Viktorova decided to leave Ukraine with her child and went to Slovakia. On 27.03 she took part in an emergency pedagogical seminar of the Friends of Waldorf Education in Bratislava Here she reports on the experience of her own trauma and the effect of emergency pedagogy, which she could clearly perceive - despite the language barrier.

Rhythmic work in Emergency Pedagogy: Being able to feel one's own body again

Minka Görzel-Straube has been working voluntarily as an emergency pedagogue for many years. She has already accompanied and partly led more than 50 interventions. She also led a workshop in Krakow, which took place in March 2022 and was primarily aimed at teachers who are currently looking after people who have fled Ukraine. In the description of one of the participants, it becomes clear how healing the work with rhythms can be, especially after and during extreme stress situations. In a conversation, the emergency pedagogue echoed the Waldorf teacher's experience:

"A participant from a workshop in Krakow, who is a class teacher, told me that she had experienced in our seminar that rhythm is a very important thing in emergency and trauma pedagogy. She experienced that rhythm can bring people back to themselves and that rhythms given from outside can stabilise the rhythm of traumatised people again. What she initially learned in the workshop, rather theoretically, was confirmed immediately after she returned to her school in Warsaw: She immediately started to work more with rhythms with her class. At that time, a Ukrainian child accompanied by his mother also visited the class. The family had just fled Ukraine. After class, the Ukrainian mother came up to her and said that she had never really felt her body before, and lately she had completely lost this already low feeling for her body due to stress. On the day when rhythmic work was done in the class, she could really feel her body again for the first time."

Suddenly the lights go out

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, sirens and power cuts have become part of everyday life even in western Ukraine, which is less affected by military attacks. During our intervention, we were able to directly experience this everyday life of war - with the chance to react directly to the insecurities that arise as a result.

March 10, 2022: Emergency Pedagogy in western Ukraine

Our Emergency Pedagogy team has spent the last two days in western Ukraine. Apparently, the security situation allows for an Emergency Pedagogy intervention, which is now being prepared.

March 7, 2022: Confusing situation: At the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Medyka

Our emergency educators traveled to Krakow, Poland last Friday to support people working with refugees from Ukraine in a training for educators. Since today the team is in Medyka at the Polish-Ukrainian border and tries to provide support there or directly in Ukraine.

Friends of Waldorf Education

Emergency Pedagogy
Karlsruhe Office
Parzivalstraße 2b
76139 Karlsruhe
Tel +49 (0)721 20111-144
Fax + 49 (0)721 20111-180
notfallpaedagogik[at]freunde-waldorf.de