Our Extended Family: A Wellbeing Camp for Ukrainian Volunteer Frontline Workers at the Romanian Border.

The city of Sighetu Marmației in northern Romania hosted in the winter of 2023 a group of 18 Ukrainian volunteers as part of the "Wellbeing Camp for First Line Ukrainian Workers" project implemented by Progress Foundation. The “Wellbeing Camp” was meant as a pilot project for Progress Foundation, an organization that traditionally does not work in the field of mental health but has a great track record in building networks and bringing communities together through their work with libraries in the Black Sea region. Over the course of four days the Ukrainian participants benefited from phycological support, group therapy, a space to undertake leisurely activities to restore their mental health, such as walking, music or cooking. The project also created a permanent support network for the volunteers not just among themselves, but also with Progress Foundation, the Romanian psychologists assisting them, as well as Ukrainian ethnic minorities active in the border cities of Romania.

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The "Wellbeing Camp for First Line Ukrainian Workers" project of Progress Foundation

Photo credit: Progress Foundation

Beyond the numbers, the project revealed the acute fatigue and constant state of duress the volunteers are under, “I am volunteering non-stop. I wanted with this camp to freeze the day in my imagination, to re-start, to sleep” said one of the participants. The project proved that sometimes offering them a good night’s sleep, permission to address the pain they are feeling and walking into nature without the fear of stepping into a mine are extremely important to allow volunteers to continue their work back home. For Camelia who developed and implemented the project, a Romania long-standing activist, “the small change we have initiated was (…) a way of pay it forward, (…) the base for trust and meaningful cooperation (…). Ukrainian NGO workers are an example for us all, not friends and partners anymore, but our extended family”.