“Our goal is to work for victory today”: the fourth session of the “Healing Communities” program took place

During March 15–18, the participants of the training course, which took place at the Patriarchal House in Lviv, had the opportunity to gain new knowledge, receive psychological rehabilitation and get to know each other better.

According to Larysa Holovan, the administrator (secretary) of the executive committee of the Shyrokivska rural territorial community in Zaporizhzhia district of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, it is one of the largest communities in terms of area and population, covering 47 hectares and uniting 22,000 people, of whom 9,000 are internally displaced. It is also worth adding residents of Zaporizhzhia who come to the community in search of safe living conditions. “So, in total, there are more than 50,000 residents whom we are caring for, providing services and living together,” she summed up.

The session was attended by specialists from the executive committee’s office, municipal institutions and enterprises, representatives of the Youth and Honourable Councils, and ordinary villagers, including families of internally displaced persons. The mother of a recently deceased hero also came.

The community was accompanied in their training and rehabilitation in Lviv by Fr Mykhailo Zavarchuk, the clergy synkel of the Donetsk Exarchate of the UGCC.

One of the peculiarities of this session was the participation of young people aged 15–16 from the local Youth Council, as Lyudmyla Nosenko explains. “We had some doubts about whether we should take young people aged 15–16 to the training. However, since we actually work with the Youth Council, which includes young people who have a desire and vision of community development in our community in order to create a positive image and to ensure that young people stay and develop our community, we decided to take them as part of our entire team. We did this not only to give them knowledge, but also to give them experience. Today is the third day of training, and I want to say that, looking at the presentations of the developments that our young leaders have created and developed, they have received not only theory and certain practical cases, but I know from informal communication that they have already planned several training sessions for other members of the Youth Council and active youth of the community.”

“I would like to express my gratitude for the idea of this project, for its preparation, namely the preparation of material that, in my opinion, is vital for everyone who came here today. This is about resilience, psychology, self-knowledge, and analysis to help your neighbour survive, develop, and live a full life. Some of our people emphasised that the unit on the just history of Ukraine was very important to them, which we will then pass on to other residents and our children. I would like to express my special gratitude to the organisers of this project for the selection of specialists and teachers involved in communicating with us. This is aerobatics!” Larysa Holovan said.

Moreover, according to her, “our group is united by a single goal — to develop, to help others, to move forward and work today to win, and to have the resources to recover, heal and develop after the victory.”