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As early as mid-July, Zaporizhia residents will enjoy a safe inclusive space providing them psychological support and helping relieve stress. This is Oplich (Side by Side) community centre to be opened by the UN Global Compact in Ukraine in concert with Saving Lives, Metinvest Group’s humanitarian initiative.

Caring about emotional well-being of the war victims has been a priority for the UN Global Compact in Ukraine since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, because the war has affected all Ukrainians, and they find it very hard to cope with stress, get used to changes in their usual routine, reconcile the tragic loss of their loved ones, and deal with other terrible consequences of Russian aggression alone. In August 2022, the UN Global Compact in Ukraine launched Mental Help, an online platform providing free psychological assistance, where professional psychologists offer one-to-one sessions for those who need support. In July 2023, the Mental Help initiative will go offline for the first time and make psychological help available to Zaporizhia residents.

Zaporizhia continues to host the displaced from the frontline and taken Ukrainian areas and had 213,000 IDPs registered as of May 2023. Yet, the city comes under regular shelling from the Russian army and local residents face constant danger and stress, and they need support.

Oplich community centre seeks to get Zaporizhia residents united in mutual support and assistance amid the current uncertainty. Visitors will be able to engage in diverse activities, including one-to-one psychological consultations, expert-guided group therapy sessions, group art therapy and cinema therapy, group physical activities (yoga), various public lectures and master classes, and legal consultations.

Currently, the organisers are preparing to open the doors of the centre in July. The aid hub will be located in Metalurhiv Culture Centre. The repair works are almost complete. Mental Help psychologists helped choose the colours for the premises and Caparol Ukraine provided high-quality paint to paint the office.

The aid hub provides support both to adults and children. The hub will have a special children’s room equipped with the help of Epicentr-K home improvement hypermarket chain. The room is designed to provide different activities for children.

The initiative to create a psychological support centre was welcomed by Zaporizhia local authorities – Zaporizhia Regional Administration.

“We are looking forward to the opening of Oplich Hub, which provides a vivid example of how a partnership of different associations and businesses can help pursue a common goal. And our goal is to create a resource for resilience, a place to recover and regain strength. When we are strong we can help our family and friends and we can fight for our country,” stated Tetiana Sakharuk, Chief Executive Director, Global Compact Network in Ukraine. 

All activities in the hub are free and everything is kept confidential. The project organisers selected the best specialists for the hub who will soon undergo a special training developed in line with world’s best practices.

Metinvest Group invests the utmost efforts and resources to ensure that Ukrainian people can recover and get integrated back into society. Saving Lives humanitarian initiative has already become one of the biggest projects implemented by a private business working for the victory of Ukraine. We provide psychological rehabilitation for women and children, as well as prosthetics treatment and physical rehabilitation for civilians and soldiers. We use a variety of approaches to dealing with childhood trauma. We do this all for our victory and for our future,”

said Tetiana Petruk, Director for Sustainable Development and Employee Engagement at Metinvest Group.

Detailed information on the opening date and working hours of the hub will be available soon. In the meantime, the support centre is making final preparations for the opening.

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The UN Global Compact Ukraine is the Ukrainian network of the world’s largest community of responsible businesses.  As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, it calls on companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The organisation has 22,000 members in 162 countries, including 126 members in Ukraine.

The Saving Lives humanitarian initiative was launched by Metinvest Group in concert with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation on the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Over 15 months of the all-out war, almost 500,000 people benefited from the assistance in 70 communities. Ukrainians received more than 4,200 tonnes of food products and hygiene items, and hospitals benefited from medicines, consumables, and equipment worth more than €250,000.

Nearly 200 businesses around the globe, 400 volunteers, and 10 foundations and NGOs have joined the initiative. The total aid received from donors exceeds €2.7 million.

Saving Lives focuses also on provision of prosthetic treatment and rehabilitation to Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, as well as on efforts to improve emotional well-being of women and children.