Oksana has been a psychologist in SOS Children’s Village Brovary for many years. Since 16-February-2022, Oksana has worked directly with the foster families who remained in SOS Children’s Village Brovary, Kyiv region, and remotely with the foster families who relocated to Truskavets, western Ukraine.
“At the moment, I am in a basement. Missiles are flying over us. I am here with my children – the little one is four years old and the older son is twelve.
“Initially, our [foster] families were a little separate as some of them stayed in Brovary and some left to Truskavets. So, the picture was a little different.
“All [foster] parents said the children started to eat lots of sweets. Everybody noted that. Then some children started wetting the bed, having anxiety, vomiting. The children started to have different bodily reactions. One boy, according to his foster mother, without anybody telling him to do so, got dressed and was simply standing dressed in boots, waiting to run somewhere.
“For the children who stayed in the SOS Children’s Village, thank God they left today, there was a different situation as these children heard the explosions multiple times. All children who stayed in Brovary felt fear. You don’ have to be a specialist to look into the eyes of children and adults and understand how they feel.
“It was very difficult for the adults. Somehow children could show their emotions. The foster parents felt responsible and felt they don’t have the right to scare the children by showing how they felt. This is a heavy burden on parents.
“I had talks with the children, did breathing exercises, used various games and exercises and then we moved to tackle the feeling of fear. I didn’t lead them into the emotion, but arranged it like a game asking them to describe what they felt before, during and after they got scared – so that each child could speak.
“At first, they were a little bit closed but then they opened up and each of them started to talk about their fears – how they experienced and were worried about the explosions, how scared they were to lose each other or their foster parents, that they could be physically harmed and disabled if they happened to be trapped in the ruins. There were lots of fears… The children talked and talked and talked.
“The children are very scared. One boy simply doesn’t go to the toilet without his [foster] mom, even though he is teenage already. He prefers to wait and at night and doesn’t go to the toilet because he is afraid. They slept on matrasses on the ground floor many nights. He simply stayed attached to his [foster] mom.
“The little children… Well, of course, the emotional state of the parents or caregivers is transferred onto them, as there are bonds between them already. It’s really good that [the foster families] were taken out [of Brovary] today.”
