The art of war... kids paint hopes & dreams as therapy
MERE miles from Ukraine’s front line with Russia, sevenyear-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
Liza and, right, Iryna and Kateryna
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.”
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.”