Inside a Ukrainian camp for children who've lost family in the Russia-Ukraine war

KYIV, Ukraine -- As Russian forces continue seizing Ukrainian towns and villages, civilian Ukrainians, along with those in the military, have lost their lives.

Ukrainians have created new ways to help those who went through the worst -- the loss of loved ones -- especially when it comes to children whose parents were killed. Gen.Ukrainian is a unique children's camp that deals precisely and exclusively with those hardest cases.

The camp takes care of children who survived the death of one or more family members as a result of Russia's actions during the war. That is, every child has a very deep psychological trauma, and the organizers of the camp do everything possible to help the child and his or her relatives somehow survive this trauma, work through it and learn how to live on as normally as possible. The camp employs professional child psychologists.

"No country in the world has the same experience of working with children's trauma as in Ukraine over the past 2.5 years," said Vanui Martyrosyan, a psychologist at Gen.Ukrainian.

The camp has a partnership with Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

"They are ready to help us in a big scientific study. This cooperation is just beginning, but it is very important for us," Martyrosyan said, admitting that the United States is currently a world leader in the level of development of psychological support.

The camp has been operating since 2022, they already had almost a dozen shifts, dedicated to children whose mother, father or other close relatives were killed.

The founder of the Gen.Ukrainian, Oksana Lebedeva, said that every child in the camp has the worst story one can only imagine, and more that 400 children have already undergone rehabilitation here. However, Lebedeva said, many more Ukrainian children need psychological help and rehabilitation.

"That's why we're doing a big study of childhood in wartime with different categories of children," she said.

“When we started working with children, we found out that there were a lot of adults around them who avoided pain, who did not talk to children about the war at all, who told them that it was not missile flying, but just a very loud train passing by," Martyrosyan added. "Then we realized that it is necessary to work comprehensively with both children and their guardians."

So, psychologists from GEN work to not only help children overcome their traumas, but also to teach their relatives to talk with children about these traumas, to support them, to help them further, after the camp is over.

“We have developed a specialized children's rehabilitation program based on scientifically based methods. This is trauma-focused therapy," Lebedeva said. "The program has already been certified by the Kyiv National University, and has proven its effectiveness."

The camp lasts 21 days. There are children aged from between about 6 to 17, who are divided into age groups. Children have personal meetings with a psychologist and group classes.

Group classes are important because children find like-minded people in them. They find out that other children are just as afraid of the sound of a siren or a drone, that they also have been through the loss of loved ones, that they are just as confused and want to cry, that someone has the same fears and anxieties.

“In this way, we help remove this negative exclusivity that something is wrong with me," Martyrosyan said.

The camp also tries to give these children elements of a normal childhood, for example, games, dances, excursions and other entertainment. After all, for many of them, the war has been ongoing for their whole lives -- since Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula more than 10 years. Also, often children cannot recall their own experiences that they had before the death of their parents. It happens that children cannot even remember what their parents looked like, so deep is their trauma.

In addition, psychologists also work with the parents or guardians of these children to provide them with psychological support and teach them how to live with the trauma and support their children.

“In 15 years, these children, traumatized by terrible events, will make important decisions for our country," Lebedeva said. "And since the world is global, today we are talking about millions of traumatized Ukrainian children, and tomorrow it will be millions of traumatized adult Europeans. After all, trauma has no geographical boundaries."

The stories of some children from the camp.

Vladyslav, 14, Hroza village, Kharkiv region

Vladyslav lost four loved ones at once -- mother, grandfather, uncle and cousin. They died as a result of a Russian missile attack on the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region on Oct. 5, 2023, when 59 people, all civilians, were killed, that is, almost a fifth of the inhabitants of the village. These people gathered in a village cafe for the funeral of a fallen Ukrainian soldier.

Vladyslav himself was in another region of Ukraine at that time with his grandmother.

"But if my grandmother and I were in Hroza on that day, we would also have gone to that funeral," Vladyslav said.

"That day, every person from the village lost someone. My cousin, he was eight years old," he added.

Now he continues to live with his grandmother in the village of Hroza, about 30 km from the front. He says that it is scary to live there and that there are almost no children left there. Vladyslav dreams of studying IT and going to work for the cyber police to help fight against Russia.

Maksym, 12, Kryvyi Rih

Maksym's mother was killed by a fragment of a Russian missile on March 12, 2024, when he and his 8-year-old brother and mother were at home.

"My mother was on the balcony, there was a lot of glass. The glass shattered and my mother died," Maksym told ABC News.

He added, “My brother and I were wounded, so I went to the bathroom to wash the blood off us. Then a neighbor came and said that we need medical help."

The boys were taken to a hospital, because they were seriously wounded, and later their father came there -- straight from the front, because he is a military.

“He said that mom in heaven is watching over us. That was my first question, where is mom now. Well, dad answered that she was gone."

When asked whether he believed his father's words or understood what had happened, Maksym answered: "I believed it. I saw it with my own eyes. I ran to the balcony, and she was lying there face down."

Now Maksym lives with his brother and father. Due to the fact that their apartment was destroyed, they were forced to move. So Maksym lost not only his mother, but also friends who remained in his old neighborhood. He says he doesn't need rehab, and in conversation he really sounds confident and tries to sound strong, but in reality you see just a confused boy in front of you who doesn't know what to do with his life.

Marusya, 7, Dnipro

Marusya lost her mother on Jan. 14, 2023, when a Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the city of Dnipro. Then the girl was only 6 years old. Forty-six people died as a result, officials said.

"My mother was passing that house with her friend. Then there was an alarm. And then the missile fell. And my mother died, and so did her friend," Marusya recalled.

Marusya was at her grandmother's when the missile attack happened.

When asked how she learned about her mother's death, she said, "I asked if my mother would survive. Because at that moment I thought that my mother was still being rescued. And then my father confessed to me that she had died."

"At first I thought it was not true. I was in shock, but then I realized that it was true," Marusya recalls.

Now Marusya lives with her father, older brother, cat and snails. Marusya is trying to return to her favorite hobby -- drawing, which she abandoned after the loss of her mother, whom she loved very much.