News

The first 140 women and their children affected by the war have completed the program for improvement of emotional well-being under Unbreakable Mom project that was launched by Metinvest’s Saving Lives initiative and Masha Fund.

The first stage of the program has been completed successfully. The project participants included Metinvest employees, their wives and children who were under occupation, lost their families, fled their homes or were left with deep psychological trauma caused by their distressing experience. 

It’s not the first time Metinvest has been taking care of psychological health of its employees in the time of war. The company has already provided help to its displaced employees in rehabilitation and reintegration centers. From the very first days of the war the company’s employees had to fight at the front line in Mariupol, Avdiivka and many other cities and towns that have been destroyed as a result of the Russian attacks. Because of traumatic war experiences many Metinvest’s employees whose work involves a high risk for their life started suffering from anxiety disorders. That’s why Saving Lives initiative focuses on a comprehensive program for physical and psychological rehabilitation of civilians in the regions of Metinvest’s presence: first of all, its employees who are war veterans, their families, women, and children.

Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov:

“The Saving Lives project was created to help people restore physical and psychological health for the sake of our future. The project helps people survive by providing food, essentials and medicine. We have launched a comprehensive program for Metinvest’s employees and we started by helping people in the rehabilitation and reintegration centers. At the moment Saving Lives provides psychological support for Metinvest employees and their children, as well as helps with prosthetic treatment for those who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also, we are planning to launch another programme: psychological rehabilitation of demobilised employees. Cooperation with Masha Fund is one more step that will help us restore the health of Ukrainian families. We will keep doing everything to ensure that help is provided to those who need it most.”

How rehabilitation worked

There were two three-week sessions in the Carpathians. A separate schedule was prepared for mothers and children. The participants attended psychological sessions and art therapy master classes, and received individual consultations.

To help moms the programme used EMDR, art therapy, mindfulness techniques, psychodrama, as well as body, narrative, and cognitive-behavioural therapies. Children activities included neurogymnastics, play therapy, Serial Drawing and Safe Space art therapy, as well as stress tolerance techniques.

Olha Kopteva, a psychologist of the session held jointly by the Masha Fund and Saving Lives:

“No doubt, Ukraine will physically win the war. But if after the victory we delve into PTSD and traumas and start fighting with one another, we will lose. Because aggression is a symptom of a trauma. Showing aggression, people often do not understand what is going on with them. The Unbreakable Mom program is more than just helping women manage their emotional instability. We also train them to realize what is happening to their mental health, why they react to certain events in this way and how to get their bearings. Back home, a woman already understands how to help a child and how to calm her husband. Our program doesn’t only help women rehabilitate, it helps them save their families. And thus, it protects our future.

A team of the Unbreakable Mom program managed to create a safety space where everyone could work on their own feelings, cope with post-traumatic anxiety, and find inner strength to move forward to live a full life. All project participants received roadmaps for solving urgent problems as well as learnt to apply successful conduct strategies that can help keep them steady and manage their emotional well-being in the future.”

Viktoria Kiva, a project participant:

“I would like to express my gratitude to the donors, organisers, and specialists of the Unbreakable Mom project. Hats off to all the miracle workers who healed our wounded souls for the psychological rehabilitation, a wonderful place of accommodation, an eventful programme, and positive emotions. Thanks to your help we, the mothers of little Ukrainians, find the inner resources to bring up the future generation. Thanks to your help we feel strong and free, and we see our future life path.”

Masha Fund NGO was established to help women and their children affected by any form of violence. The organisation was co-founded by Masha Efrosynina, a renowned TV presenter, and Oksana Nechyporenko, Director of GoGlobal NGO. In 2022, over 1,000 women and children have been the patients of the rehabilitation center run by Masha Fund project. The plan is to double the number of programme participants in 2023. 

Oksana Nechyporenko, co-founder of Masha Fund:

“Revival of women is the mission of the Masha Fund, and we welcome every opportunity to deliver on it. It is important that big business understands and joins such initiatives. That’s why our cooperation with Metinvest Group’s humanitarian initiative, Saving Lives, is a win-win for us.
The Saving Lives project is going to continue the program next year given the positive changes in the lives of the project participants, who worked with psychologists, and a clear need for psychological support among Metinvest’s female employees.

How else Saving Lives helps

The Saving Lives humanitarian initiative was launched by Metinvest Group in concert with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The initiative has been providing ongoing assistance to Ukrainians, which includes food products and essentials. For this purpose, it has arranged two hubs in Poland that collect, sort and prepare bulk cargoes for shipment. In coordination with the national authorities, they are delivered to cities and areas where this support is most needed. More than 303,000 Ukrainians have already received food and sanitary items.
Also, Saving Lives provides strong support to medical facilities. Since the beginning of the war, it has donated medicines, consumables and equipment worth €240,000 to Ukrainian hospitals. 

Rehabilitation of war-affected employees is a new area of focus for Saving Lives. They include war veterans, their families, employees and their children. In particular, the initiative has launched a prosthetic treatment programme for Ukrainians that will help 16 Metinvest’s employees and their families in Ukraine and abroad. Later, the program will give support to war veterans and civilians in the areas where Metinvest operates.

Saving Lives also helps develop a Ukrainian-language online training platform for limb prosthetists and other rehabilitation specialists to improve the quality of medical services and help the war victims come back to normalcy.