24 February 2024 , 23:36
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Mere miles from Ukraine’s front line with Russia, seven-year-old Liza paints her dream – playing outside with her pals. And Kateryna, 10, shares her creation with mum Iryna, a picture bearing their country’s flag and the word “victory”. Two years on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the girls are desperate for the war to end so that they can have a normal childhood again.
The pair were taking part in an art therapy session at a school in the Kherson region, supported by charity Save the Children. The area was annexed by the Russians before being recaptured by Ukraine in late 2022 – and sombre reminders that their surroundings were a battlefield are found everywhere.
On the way to the village from Mykolaiv, in one place hardly a building by the road remains unscathed, with blue tarpaulins used as temporary roofs to keep out the cold. The village school’s windows are smashed and a stark message painted on the gate of a nearby building reminds soldiers: “People live here.”
At the art therapy session, facilitator Anzhela Osinnia set her group of 10 to putting their dreams down on paper. Anzhela, who works for a local NGO, says: “My [aim] was so that children unload their brains, they relax and they find positives in their dreams.”
Kateryna’s mum Iryna, 47, a mum-of-three with several brothers on the front line, said her daughter retreated into herself after the invasion but is doing better since therapy. She adds of her girl’s picture: “This is how she supports me in trying to say that the victory will come and everybody will be back home safe and sound, we will be together.”
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And Anzhela is confident the art therapy is working. She says: “When we started here we felt children were very closed, very detached, they didn’t want to communicate with us. And now they are starting to talk.”