Education in a Bubble - Hope for children in Ukraine

On February 24, 2022, war broke out in Ukraine when Russia attacked - virtually overnight and with devastating consequences. Entire regions were devastated, countless people lost their homes and many their lives.

Those who could, fled and found a piece of “normality” far away. Those who stayed have been living with the consequences of their experiences ever since. Children in particular are extremely traumatized and are still a long way from processing the images they have seen.

Our partner organization Save Ukraine has been active on the ground since the beginning of the war, initially providing emergency aid and increasingly also long-term aid measures - primarily in the field of art and music therapy. In the last two years, for example, a center has been set up in Kiev that children and young people can visit regularly.

Under the guidance of experienced trainers and psychologists, the staff at the center have been trained in how to deal with children affected by trauma so that they can better process their experiences. The work in Kiev is going well, but so many more children need help, especially in eastern Ukraine, where the war is still showing its worst face every day. However, setting up a stationary facility there would be problematic in such a fragile context.

The solution: the so-called “Pop-Hub”, an innovative, inflatable bubble that can be set up and set up in a very short time and can thus reach many children on the move. A small team will go out with this mobile pop hub to hold temporary workshops. In one-day or 7-10-day workshops, children and young people experience a break from the ongoing uncertainty and traumatic experiences they have been through. The contents of the workshops are varied and range from painting and handicrafts to movement and theater activities. They are always adapted to the duration of the workshops and the age of the children.

In this way, we want to give a piece of “mental health” back to a total of 900 Ukrainian children aged between 7 and 16 and help them to process their traumatic events such as displacement, violence, loss of family and friends, hunger and cold.