Dentons team joined to help children affected by the war

The war continues. Increasing number of adults and children need help. We are tirelessly looking for partners to help children affected by the war to overcome the consequences of experienced terror so every child will have a chance to live a full life.
International law company Dentons has already provided invaluable financial support for the «Order of Phoenix» by transferring 10 thousand euros from their own fund Dentons Europe Foundation to implement the program activities.

What is «Order of Phoenix»?
It is a powerful program for crisis psychological aid for children affected by the war. Its funds will be used to provide psychological assistance to small patients of the National Specialized Children’s Hospital «Ohmatdyt» during the treatment and after a discharge until the recovery, to teach them to cope with their own emotions and fears, look ahead to the future with confidence, don’t be scared of their shadow and by their own memories.
Children from completely destroyed Mariupol were among the first ones provided with a long-term support.

Meet Illia Matviienko.
A 10-year-old boy whose childhood ended with Russian troops arrival to his home town.
Constant bombardment for many weeks. Attempt to escape from Mariupol with his mum. Shooting of civilians. As a result, Illia’s mum was wounded in the head and boy’s leg was severely mutilated. Mother managed to carry her injured son to a friend’s house. She died there embracing him. The next day Illia was taken by Russian soldiers. First to Novoazovsk and then to Donetsk.
And Kira Obedynska.
A 12-year-old girl saw her dad being shot. Then she was escaping from the town by foot with other woman and children. She tripped a mine. The girl was severely injured by shell splinters. She was brought to occupied Mangush. But local physicians were not able to remove splinters. Kira ended up in Donetsk.

For a month, relatives of the children were looking for a way to take them to Ukraine. As there was a risk that Kira and Illia could be moved to Russian territory as orphans and given up for adoption.
The relatives managed to arrange guardianship very fast and they were ready to go to occupied territory to take children by themselves.
The children’s mental state was poor. They had hysterics. Kids lost hope and thought that nobody needed them and nobody from their relatives would come.
Their relatives had unimaginable route: from Kyiv to Poland, from Poland to Turkey by plane, from Turkey to Sochi, from Sochi to Moscow by plane.
Children came back to Ukraine by the same way.
They were brought to the National Specialized Children’s Hospital «Ohmatdyt» for the treatment. Physicians examined Illia’s leg. Despite the severe damage of posterior region of hip, he can move his toes so the function is preserved and Illia will be able to walk after a long-term therapy. Illia is a fighter. He is positive, sociable and communicative. But when he remains alone, his mood is getting worse soon.
On her way back to Ukraine, Kira was asking again and again whether there would be no constant shelling and explosions in Kyiv. The girl is scared when her grandfather leaves her alone even for a short time. She wants to hold hands with him and hug him all the time. The relatives don’t talk with Kira about her dad. It is too early. As it is still was not possible to bury him.

These are the stories of two Ukrainian children whose life was destroyed by the brutal war. Nobody knows how many more such stories we will hear.
Every adult goes through a psychological stress while listening or reading about the pain, suffering and unhuman experience of the innocent children. And what can we say about physicians, psychologists, who contact such children everyday and every hour and do everything possible to help them?
We create supervision groups for psychologists who constantly interact with, support and find the right words for children who witnessed their close ones being killed and tortured, as well as were mutilated, raped and went through other atrocities committed by occupants. This is one of the work areas of «Order of Phoenix». First support group is open in the coming days in the National Specialized Children’s Hospital «Ohmatdyt».
During sessions or conversations with children, our psychologists strongly empathize and suffer from high psychological impact and burning out, as they had no experience of dealing with war childhood traumas up to now. Overcoming the psychological consequences of war is a real challenge for Ukrainian professionals. Anopriienko Olena Vasylivna, the Head of the Medical Psychological and Social Rehabilitation Assistance Center of the National Specialized Children’s Hospital «Ohmatdyt», coordinates work of psychologists to be sure that every small patient of the hospital receives appropriate psychological aid from specialist and all professionals stay resourceful!

Thanks for support to the law company Dentons and to everyone who is fighting for children safety and health and therefore for the future of Ukraine!