Summer camp for Ukraine children missing

On the day that Russia’s invasion began on a large scale, Dima’s father told him that he might not see him again.

My father said: “The building has been detonated on our street. I will do everything I can so that you can live a normal life.”

Days later, Dima’s father joined the army and left for the confrontation line.

Fifteen -year -old Dima shares his father’s memories with 49 other Ukrainian children. They sit around the camp fire, carry candles to celebrate their missing loved ones.

The gentle slopes of the cabinet mountains in Ukraine, which were overcome in the wonderful green spruce and spruce trees, extend to the distance.

It is an amazing background for this tragic scene. We are in the relative safety of West Ukraine, and Russian bombs rarely fall here.

A little girl talks about the time when the invasion began widely.

“The first time we were bombed, my hand was shaking and I was crying,” she says. “It took me a long time to deal with it.”

This activity with the camp is a type of group treatment session. It is part of a pioneering summer camp for a very special group of Ukrainian children, those who have one of the parents who disappeared during the war.

Some are missing soldiers to work on the confrontation line, supposed to be dead. Some in captivity or trapped in the occupied areas.

The Ukrainian government says more than 70,000 people are officially included as being missing.

The charitable institution that runs the camp, Gen.ukrainian, helps thousands of children with shock throughout Ukraine and runs many summer camps.

But this is the first of this category of children, and the BBC was given exclusive access.

“Many of these children suffer from multiple shocks because their parents are not only missing, but some of them have missiles and missiles as well,” explains Vanoy Martirosian, the main psychologist in The Charity.

“They live as in a frozen state. They cannot plan something in the future because they do not know what the future will attend. We cannot work with them with children who suffer from actual loss, because they do not have this point in starting sadness.”

She says that many children spend hours hunting Russian social media channels, and they are desperately looking for information about their family members. Channels often contain violent content related to war.

“They are afraid of crying, and they believe that if they start crying, this will continue forever. This type of shock may be the most difficult to work.”

The day after the camp fire meeting, I speak to Dima, who wants to tell me more about his father. The last time he heard it was the day before the disappearance in November 2023.

Dima says: “I have sent a video of all of them drinking tea in the woods and wrote to me a letter saying:” Everything is fine, I will call you tomorrow. “

The next day, Umm Dima received a phone call that his father was missing at work.

“I started calling the mobile phone. Dad did not respond. This was the matter. I was sitting there and started crying. I realized that I wouldn’t see my father for a while.”

During all the interviews we had with children, including with Dima, a psychologist Gen.ukrainian attended.

Dima says: “I have come to the end that the father would be a prisoner of war somewhere. So far I still hope,” Dima says.

Dima shocked only after his mother began looking at the circumstances of his father’s disappearance.

Initially, the army told her that her husband was missing after an air strike in his post.

“Then another person called my mother, the head of something or another, and said that the Russians shot everyone, and someone saw the body of my father dumped there without any legs. Then another soldier who was in my father’s position said that they saw him dead, with the wounds of shrapnel on her head.”

Dima says that the influence on everyone and his mother was deep.

“My mom cried a lot because of it. I supported her,” says Dima. When my father left, he said, “Dima, regardless of what is happening, you must take care of my mother because you are a man, and you are her son. “

Collective therapy is performed in the camp daily, held in small rooms. We are allowed to monitor the beginning of one of the sessions – the rest is secret.

A psychologist, Olina, appears a colored diagram for children, used to describe emotions. Green is happy, blue sad, yellow is anxious or exaggerated, and red is anger.

Today, they will discuss sadness. Olsina says, the more we feel the more sad and sad, the more we love the people we grieve. This indicates that these people are important to us.

Children are encouraged to express their feelings, including through art. In a technical treatment session, many paintings show families, homes and happy pets.

A seven -year -old boy, Zahr, tells me that his drawing is called “Daddy Comes Home”. It shows a yellow stick in front of a blue sky – the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Many children live in cities that are subjected to almost fixed bombing by drones and Russian missiles. Like the 16 -year -old NASA, in northeastern Ukraine, near the confrontation line.

“If there is a bombing nearby, then I go and shelter in the corridor. I am worried and confirm a lot,” she says.

Her father was also a soldier. It disappeared about a year ago on the confrontation line. The last time I saw him two weeks before his loss.

I ask her what are your father’s memories that have her eyes shining.

“He was very nice,” she said. “I only remember good things about my father. The only sad thing I remember is that it has disappeared.

“I love him a lot and know he loves me too,” she continues, adding, “I hope we can make new memories with him again.”

This camp also provides children with an opportunity to join sleep, without interruption by sunken sirens – and for lips and playing only. There are regular trips to the swimming pool, walking long distances and volleyball games.

“It is important for the body to make movements to heal the shock,” the main psychologist Vanoui explains.

At the camp closing ceremony, it is time for children and employees to farewell.

One boy, Elijah, in the floods of tears – does not want to go home.

“We have a child like this in every camp,” Oksana Lippida, founder of Gen.ukrainian.

It indicates the crowds of children playing in the garden.

“Maybe for the first time in their lives, they found people who have experienced the same experience. It is very important. Collective treatment is more important than anything – to see that you are not alone with pain.”

Oksana says the size of the task facing its charitable institution is overwhelming.

“Millions of Ukrainian children are shocked by war. This is a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Additional reports by John Murphy