Plan International asks Ukraine, Poland and Romania for mental health measures for young people due to the war
The NGO Plan International has asked the Ukrainian, Polish and Romanian authorities to adopt ‘urgently’ measures to address the mental health of adolescents affected by the war in Ukraine, since 75 percent of young women and minors, many of them displaced, need help to deal with the psychological impact of the conflict with Russia.
“Sometimes I get the impression that the war is not only outside my head, but inside as well.“, believes Irina, a 15-year-old Ukrainian girl who is part of a research carried out in Ukraine, Poland and Romania with the voices of 135 adolescents.
The report, done between August and October 2023, reveals the difficulties faced by young women affected by the conflict to access mental health services that can help them minimize the high levels of stress and anxiety they face.
Psychological problems also impact their education. Many young women experience a delay in school subjects and even drop out of classes. ““It’s very difficult to study when you have anxiety every day and alarms ring constantly.”says Alyona, another young woman who lives in Ukraine.
The NGO also focuses on learning’online‘ due to security reasons in Ukraine or the barrier to academic success that displaced adolescents have to learn from scratch a language that is not their own.
“When we had to leave our home, I was unable to participate in school for months. I didn’t have a laptop or internet. We left everything there. “We had nothing left,” says Hanna, a 15-year-old girl who lives in Ukraine.
Plan International plans to wait until the Ukrainian authorities can carry out transition itineraries so that school-age boys and girls can rejoin the formal education system once security conditions allow. Likewise, it urges the governments of these countries to promote social cohesion in the host countries.
After more than two years of war, 14.6 million people need humanitarian aid, 4 million people are internally displaced within the country and 6.5 million are refugees in neighboring countries. In addition, more than 3,700 educational buildings have been destroyed.
