Girls in the shadow of war: Ukraine’s hidden mental health crisis
Two years on from the escalation of conflict in Ukraine, 4 young women speak about the impact the conflict has had upon their mental health.
Ukraine Crisis Response
Ukraine Crisis – two years on.
24 February 2024 marks two years since the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
Girls, boys and their families are still facing a humanitarian crisis each day.
With there being no end in sight to the war in Ukraine since it escalated nearly two years ago, Plan International holds grave concerns that the gendered impacts of the war remain overlooked.
The war is exacerbating harmful gender stereotypes, increasing the care burden on women and girls, and has resulted in skyrocketing gender-based violence.
There are spiralling complex mental health challenges, amid wide uncertainty about the future and devastating learning losses from prolonged online learning.
Despite this, we see first-hand the resilience, determination and adaptation among war-affected young people and adolescent girls and their collective desire to actively participate in the reconstruction of their country.
With over 14 million people in need in Ukraine, including over 3 million children, and close to 6 million refugees from Ukraine still in Europe, the international community must continue supporting those impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Plan International and our partners will continue to be there – through conflict and as they rebuild and recover.
Our goal in all countries is to continue to deepen our support to local organisations as they lead the response and beyond.
We will focus on several priority areas in which Plan International can add value and offer expertise:
Child protection
Plan International aims to continue the efforts in strengthening child protection systems and to reinforce leadership and representation expertise of its partners to ensure girls and boys and youth affected by the crisis, including those from host communities, are protected from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and their families have support to prevent negative coping mechanisms.
This includes activities such as the provision of mobile child protection teams, with trained psychologists and social workers, the identification and registration of unaccompanied and separated minors and other vulnerable children, and the provision of cash and voucher or food assistance to support families to meet their basic needs.
This also includes training to public workers, such as border staff, teachers and other frontline workers, as well as all Plan International staff, partner staff on safeguarding and prevention of sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse to ensure this is imbedded throughout the response.
Mental health and psychosocial support
Girls, boys and youth, their families and frontline workers all have access to psychosocial support, such as psychological first aid, art therapy, group or individual counselling as well as referrals to more specialised services to boost their resilience and coping strategies.
Watch our video on the mental health impacts of the war in Ukraine:
Education
Ensuring girls, boys and youth affected by the crisis have access to safe, inclusive and quality education through the provision of tablets and computers for online learning, support with registration and learning materials for in person learning, as well as repairs and refurbishment to damaged schools to ensure they provide the right, protective environment for learning.
Gender-transformative crisis response
It is well recognised that crises affect people differently, exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities, including those related to an individual’s age, gender, sexuality, ability, background and social status. As a girls’ rights organisation, Plan International and our partners will put girls at the heart of our work in the region.
We aim to increasing women and girls’ participation in decision-making, and support our partners in their own gender-transformative work to tackle discriminatory behaviour and harmful social norms.
Watch our video on the gendered impacts of war in Ukraine:
Accountability to host communities
We recognise the importance of listening to affected communities and encourage their input into the humanitarian response. We have a duty to amplify the voices of marginalised groups eg. children, adolescents, women, people with disabilities, older people, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Our response will be guided by two-way communication with both refugee and host communities.
Watch our video on youth participation and engagement on the reconstruction and recovery of Ukraine:
Learn more about our crisis response in these four countries:
We work alongside Ukraine’s civil society organisations focusing on internally displaced persons, those returning to the country and communities in the newly accessible areas of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Kherson Oblasts.
Plan International has been working in Romania since February 2022 to support the government and partner organisations in responding to the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.
Plan International started operating in Moldova in March 2022 to support the Government, the UN and humanitarian partners in responding to the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.
Plan International began operating in Poland in 2022 to respond to the unprecedented scale of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and the associated needs of children and their families.
Related pages
Key contacts: Sven Coppens, Director of Plan International’s Ukraine Crisis Response