Some of the participants are teachers whose daily classroom routine is often interrupted by airspace alarms. Teachers and their students must then collectively seek refuge in the school's designated safe space, which all schools have been required to have for more than a year. Teachers place great importance on learning more about topics such as attention disorders, concentration weaknesses, challenging behaviour ranging from aggression to emotional withdrawal. Additionally, they want to learn how to support children in their processing.
If they are lucky enough to live and work in a region where in-person classes can take place. Currently, this is almost only possible in the western part of Ukraine. In the eastern part of the country, there are fourth-graders who have never been to school. Initially, they could not attend school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and afterward, it was the war that prevented them from attending.
Other participants in the training are social workers and psychologists who work with groups or provide individual support to children and people who have experienced traumatizing events. They help process the death of a family member, experiences of violence, displacement, or the loss of their home. Often they also assist in building and maintaining the relationship between a child and the family with a father on the front lines. Or in restoring the relationship when he returns from the front as a war invalid or with post-traumatic stress disorder. These are just some of the challenging topics that the group of social workers and psychologists have to work with.
Physical and emotional wounds are visible everywhere, in every region, in every age group, in every social interaction. And people are tired after almost two years of war. A year ago, hope and the belief that the war could be won and ended soon overweighed. Now, hope is giving way to disillusioned acceptance of the reality that the war will last for a long time and claim many more victims, and that the end of the war might not mean victory and reclaiming occupied territories.
In addition to the newly started training cycles, there is further support for those who were trained in emergency and trauma pedagogy in the last cycle. They participate in supervisions, allowing them to deepen their knowledge and reflect on and improve their professional skills while working with people in emergency and trauma pedagogy.
Our emergency and trauma pedagogy training programs in Ukraine are being received with great interest. The new training cycle was fully booked within 54 minutes. Due to high demand, we will try to expand the training support we can provide.