Country: Ukraine Source: Finn Church Aid Three years of war in Ukraine have left lasting emotional scars, particularly on children and youth. According to FCA’s new assessment, psychosocial support is an efficient first response, but the needs are more extensive than can currently be met.24 FEBRUARY, 2025, Finn Church Aid conducted a needs assessment covering 49 schools in Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Poltava at the end of 2024. In interviews with 330 teachers, school psychologists, parents and students, 67 per cent mentioned that psychosocial support is the most pressing educational need. The most commonly identified concerns were safety and technological challenges.Access to in-person education is hardest near the frontlines, with 70 per cent of children in eastern Ukraine relying on remote learning. War has worsened children’s wellbeing and learning outcomes, with digital fatigue and stress as significant factors.In the city of Kharkiv, face-to-face education is possible only underground. FCA’s school psychologist Alina Symonenko works in Kharkiv, where the students meet in person once a week in the six schools established in the city’s subway stations.“Some are bursting with energy but not quite sure how to interact because nothing has been normal for years. Others withdraw completely and are frightened whenever they need to express themselves”, Symonenko describes the students’ reactions.“On the other hand, children seem to value the time they get to spend together more than before.”Remote education the normKharkiv is one of the locations where remote education has been the norm for five years, first due to the pandemic, after which the war escalated in February 2022Symonenko organises psychosocial support lessons for school classes and counselling sessions for individual students.“The number of fears has grown exponentially. In addition to war, children increasingly fear spiders, dogs, loud noises, and getting lost. Every second consultation I have had is about fears, sleep problems or nightmares”, Symonenko says.“Psychosomatic problems are also common. They involve physical symptoms in which the child imagines that something is wrong. The stomach or the leg may hurt. Anxiety is manifested by nail-biting, incontinence and neurological problems.”Education supports mental well-beingEducation remains a key way through which FCA supports the mental well-being of children, says FCA Ukraine Country Director, Patricia Maruschak:“Even in the midst of war, children go to school. We support them in coping with schoolwork, with the challenges of on-line learning and the traumas of war. Emotional and psychosocial support is one of the most important needs that children and young people currently have.”FCA currently implements education projects in eight oblasts, including Kharkiv, focusing on school rehabilitation, safe spaces for learning, educational reform and support for teachers and students’ mental wellbeing. Projects are funded by European Union Humanitarian Aid, Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Education Cannot Wait global fund, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and FCA’s private donors and parishes in Finland.“FCA remains committed to supporting Ukrainians, especially children, in all circumstances and according to their needs,” continues Maruschak.Psychosocial support responses are efficient but limitedIn FCA’s new impact assessment of its psychosocial support programmes, children and parents say the counselling, stress management and self-soothing techniques and creative activities, such as painting, crafting and games, have been extremely helpful for the children to cope with the war. In the survey of 276 children, 63 percent reported feeling calmer and more relaxed after participating in psychosocial support activities.Of 187 caregivers, 71 per cent replied that the support has “completely” enhanced their children’s mental wellbeing, and 23 per cent responded “mostly”. Almost the entire sample said their children’s social interactions with family and friends improved, and 58 per cent of the adults noticed an improvement in their hope and optimism for the future.According to the assessment, the continuing challenges within the education sector relate to needs being much bigger than the capacity to respond. Teachers and school psychologists report exhaustion and time constraints as their main issues. The program duration and the frequency of psychosocial support activities are limited. The insufficient availability of qualified psychologists also limits the program’s reach.According to the 2025 Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 12.7 million people in Ukraine need assistance, of which 1.9 million (15%) are children. Nearly 3,600 educational institutions have been damaged, including 371 destroyed, with repair efforts lagging due to ongoing attacks, says the report released in January 2025. In 2024, missile attacks disrupted learning for one-third of children.—Read the full interview with school psychologist Alina Symonenko.For more information:Tomi Järvinen, Executive Director, tomi.jarvinen@kua.fi, tel. +358 40 641 8209Ruth Owen, International Communications Manager, ruth.owen@kua.fi, tel. +358 50 4097848Images for media use can be found by clicking here. Please credit Antti Yrjönen / FCA