ADEC Members Supporting Grieving Communities

Spotlight Ukraine

Linda Goldman

Linda Goldman has invited ADEC colleagues to share the efforts they are making with grieving communities to make a difference – in this case Ukraine. This is part of an ongoing series, ADEC Members Support Grieving Communities. This article highlights ADEC members who are participating in helping grieving communities around the world.          Dr. Carrie Arnold, Bonnie Carroll, Founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for the Military (TAPS), and Linda Goldman share their support, volunteerism, and professional connections with Ukraine.

Figure 1: Photo by Joran Maaswinkel on Unsplash

Carrie Arnold PhD, FT, MED, RSW, CCC, Associate Professor Thanatology Department King’s University College   Carrie Arnold is an extraordinary ADEC member that has reached out to the Ukrainian community in many ways. On February 12, 2023, Carrie offered a webinar for First Aid for the Soul, entitled Finding Meaning Amidst Loss to over 150 participants. Carrie explains the webinar presented some central grief concepts such as assumptive world, ambiguous loss, and collective grief and it provided an opportunity for participants to reflect and share their experiences of death and non-death loss as a result of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Since June 2022, Carrie has facilitated a weekly peer support group for Ukrainian therapists. The group is an opportunity to discuss clients, share resources regarding grief and trauma, and also to build connections for Ukrainian therapists who have been displaced and are dealing with their own grief and loss while providing much needed support to others. The following is an example of a whiteboard used during the webinar with participates sharing feelings.
Figure 2: White board used in Webinar First Aid of the Soul www.firstaidofthesoul.org

Lastly, Nathalie Robelot-Timtchenko of First Aid of the Soul: Psychosocial Support for Ukraine acted as a liaison, connecting Carrie and co-editor Lauren Breen, with  two Ukrainian authors of the chapter: Olena Voznesenska and Olena Lutsenk, psychologists living and working in Kyiv. Providing grief support and art therapy to children in Kyiv, these authors presented an extraordinary chapter which will appear in the International Handbook of Childhood and Adolescent Grief in Contemporary Contexts, published by Routledge in January 2024.

Figure 3: First Aid of the Soul (photo used with permission)

Linda Goldman, MS, FT, CPC, Author Life and Loss/Classic Edition, Former ADEC Board Member and Recipient of ADEC Clinical Award

Linda Goldman has participated with projects in Ukraine including consulting with Ukrainian therapists, volunteering as outreach coordinator for the non-profit Following Francis: Francis on the Hill/ Ukraine (FOH) and working with the non-profit United Help Ukraine (UHU)  www.UnitedHelpUkraine.org that directly delivers food, medical supplies, diapers, and new toys and clothing for orphans to Ukraine and provides toys sensitive to children experiencing trauma.

In 2022 Linda participated in a campaign as an outreach coordinator with Francis on the Hill/Ukraine,   www.followingfrancis.org.   This campaign provided over $48,000 worth of donated shelf stable food, medical supplies, diapers and infant supplies, and hygiene bags for shipment by  United Help Ukraine   and  Convoy of Hope . FOH also donated over $32,000 worth of new clothing, toys, and diapers for Christmas delivery by United Help Ukraine to 800 orphans in 26 orphanages.  Ages of these children ranged from newborn to seventeen-years-old.

The UHU staff communicated they were astonished at the volume and quality of the gifts, which were beyond their expectations, explaining “ Francis on the Hill Ukraine is one of the very few organizations who have been supporting them throughout.”

Figure 4, New Clothes

Figure 5, Toys at the Ukraine orphanage

Figure 6 Bombas socks

Since March 2022, Francis on the Hill  has acquired needed supplies for shipment to Poland and Ukraine, in partnership with trusted organizations serving the millions of internally displaced Ukrainians as well as refugees who have fled.  Two thousand pairs of Bombas socks were donated to Ukrainian troops.

Linda volunteered as Outreach Coordinator with Following Francis to work with United Help Ukraine for other special projects as well. One example of a special project was backpacks filled with gifts for Ukrainian children ages 4-8 dealing with unimaginable trauma. Many children leave their homes with just the clothes on their backs. Others may remain in their hometowns in improvised shelters. Only some areas have remote schooling; and instruction can be interrupted by sirens at any time.

Bonnie Carroll, President and Founder of Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors of the Military (TAPS): TAPS Ukraine

Bonnie Carroll is one of ADEC’s outstanding members. She is the president and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors of the Military-TAPS. Bonnie creates the following background for understanding TAPS in Ukraine. Ukraine NGO is a member of the international organization Taps International in the United States to support people who are experiencing the loss of a loved one of a military person(s). The NGO TAPS-Ukraine was created as an association of families of the victims of Dnipro Ukraine.

Figure 12, TAPS Ukraine Logo

TAPS Ukraine Mission Statement  

TAPS Ukraine, a Ukrainian Charity Fund, was founded in 2018 through the mentorship of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) in the United States to meet the dire emotional and humanitarian needs of every Ukrainian who suffered from Russian aggression and genocide. TAPS Ukraine provides clinical and peer-based psychological support and trauma counseling for families of fallen Ukrainian military heroes, military families, volunteers, displaced children, and children who are witnesses of war. TAPS Ukraine also supports the lifesaving needs of civilians, IDPs, and the injured, and manages the regional Volunteer Coordination Center, which provides food,  medical supplies, and other critical aid to the Ukrainian people.


Figure 13, TAPS Ukraine

In 2019, TAPS-Ukraine, TAPS International, and Dnipro City Council signed a trilateral declaration of intent, which provides for a common vision of development and mutual support for the families of the fallen heroes of Ukraine. During its existence, the TAPS-Ukraine has already held hundreds of events to provide psychological support to families who are experiencing the loss of loved ones in the war. As of 2023, this organization has more than 300  family members from all over Ukraine.

Figure 14, Wreath for Fallen Ukrainian Heroes	Figure 15: Fun During War	Figure 16: Families Grieve (All courtesy of TAPS)

Bonnie explained TAPS International has been working with Ukraine since 2014 when the state department asked TAPS to assist Ukraine in developing a program to support the families of the military deceased from conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine in February, TAPS International and our sister organization TAPS Ukraine have been on the ground providing direct support to Ukrainian soldiers, internally displaced people, families who have lost a loved one, and all those suffering in the conflict.

TAPS International quickly began collecting funds and supplies to support TAPS Ukraine. TAPS International has purchased supplies of nutritious and sustainable food, high quality boots, safety equipment, and two state of the art ambulances fully stocked with emergency medical equipment.

The Dnipro Volunteer Coordination Center became one more type of organization activity. Today it is the community of hundreds of different citizens who created the biggest volunteer organization in the region by implementing their professional skills, and knowledge, and learning. Ukraine TAPS Ukraine’s main aim is to provide psychological and social support to the families, cover humanitarian and military needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and provide a place for living for temporarily displaced people from the territory of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kyiv regions, to ensure that injured soldiers receive everything they need in local military hospitals and clinics on the frontline.

TAPS Ukraine UA Camp

TAPS Camp UA is a place of strength and inner freedom for the families of fallen soldiers. Twice a year, 30 participants and 10 organizers go to the Ukrainian place of strength - the Carpathians. For seven days, psychological help and relief trainings, creative master classes, events commemorating the memory of deceased family members are held. The camp works with mentoring, psychological support, and honoring a fallen soldier. Children arrive from all over Ukraine. Ninety percent have had a father die in the war. Each child is given a tee shirt that reads “My father is a hero”, and they take pride in sharing their father died defending Ukraine (live Zoom with camp July 20, 2023).

Figure 17: TAPS Ukraine Camp

 

Artwork is the foundation for expression with war-torn youth in Ukraine. Here are a few unsigned drawings by young people collected at TAPS Ukraine. They illustrate the grief and trauma experienced continuously through exposure to war. The artwork displays bombs overhead, soldiers helping, tears, burning cities with angels, and saving babies - the devastation, sadness, terror, safety, and hope of war. These images depict war through the eyes of the children given with permission by TAPS.

Figure 18, Bombing	Figure 19, Soldiers
Figure 20, Angels Are Watching	Figure 21, Stop the War
Figure 22, No Fly Zone	Figure 23, Hope

ADEC is inviting colleagues to join Carrie, Linda, and Bonnie in sharing any information available about their connection to Ukraine or other communities facing disaster as part of the project: ADEC Members Support Grieving Communities. This information can be compiled to create a voice for ADEC in terms of being active and present to the grief and loss children and families are constantly feeling during a war-torn time or any natural or man-made catastrophe throughout the globe.