The children are celebrating the end of the summer camp with a self-created stage program and a party.

Iryna, teacher, psychologist, head of a summer camp for children in Eastern Ukraine, who are affected by the war:

»We try to make all children happy in the summer camp. The complete camp is organized in this regard, for example the kitchen, the sleeping-rooms, the bath-rooms and toilets are always adapted to the needs of the children.
The pedagogical staff works every day to ensure that the children recognize their own value, that they are happy and can develop permanently in the camp.
The main goal of the camp is to improve the development, recovery and health of the children. Because the camp is located in a pine forest, the children have good air and the camp offers them a wide range of possibilities to enjoy their free time. In addition, the children in the camp also receive psychological help and support from external experts and social workers, for example People in Need or SOS Children's Village.
Each child in the camp has its own story, some children are directly from the combat area and others are affected indirectly, when their relatives or friends live in the war zone. We don't try to talk about the things that happened to the children, as there is simply too much suffering and pain. In the camp the children should find love, affection and peace.
For affected children, it is important that they find a home and support. We want to give them the feeling that they are needed and liked. And that other people take care of them. And they should realize that we all belong together.
One can clearly see the consequences of the war in the behaviour of the children, for example some children fall silent hence they don't want to talk about what has happened to them and don't understand what adults have done to them. Many affected children find no inner balance and no stability in their lives.
They look at you and they don't know how to answer your questions. And when they answer, it is not because they feel the need to do so, but rather want to do the questioner a favour.
I have learned seriousness and openness from children and also to laugh in any situation. It is important to remember his own childhood, and walking through the camp and seeing the happy faces of the children, makes myself happy, too.
It's impossible to act dishonestly against the children. As an adult you can wear a mask or play a role, for example at school I play the role of the teacher and at home I fulfil the role of the mother. As an adult, we change from one role to the other and often act indifferently towards children. But here in the camp we are busy with the children 24 hours a day. Everyone, who is working in the camp, should take off all roles or masks.
Children hate these masks and it's impossible to smile at the children for 24 hours.
The children accept people as they are. Those, who can not open up to the children, leave the camp relatively quick. The people, who work at the camp are doing it out of passion and not to earn money. They share the daily life with the children and are confronted with children's day-to-day problems, for example hairstyle, body care or clothing. I have faith, love and hope inside me when the summer camp is finished.

In the camp, the children are allowed to dance, make music, move and do many things which they can't do at home. Perhaps some children will open up here and show things they have hidden before.
The people in the occupied territories still try to communicate with other people. I don't know anyone among my relatives who has stopped talking to other people in Ukraine because of political reasons. I grew up in a family with different nationalities and my former classmates are living all over the place, in the former Soviet republics as well as in Europe. The war did not seperate us. When the situation was very difficult for me here in Ukraine, all my relatives offered me assistance, for example in regard to a place to live or work and no one ever asked me about my political views.
I also remember the case of a paramedic who brought two injured soldiers to the hospital and on the way took two more wounded in his vehicle and did not ask who they belonged to and where they came from. This for me is true humanity.
If all people would act in this sense and remember that all of us are human beings and nothing separates us, the situation here would improve quickly. My mother was Muslima and my father was orthodox and they lived together contentedly. That's why I do not understand quarrels due to nationalist reasons.
It shocked me so much when a young mother and her child were killed in the park in Horlivka and when I saw the picture of the dead mother with her child. I just wanted to scream and tell everyone that they should stop the war immediately. But unfortunately the war goes on for three years now and it happens again and again that children die or lose their relatives.«

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