Viktoriia Berbets, director of the Kyiv State House of Art and Technical Creativity, believes that the pupils of their out-of-school education institution are the most talented and creative. “The main thing is for us, the adults, to keep up with them!” says Viktoriia. On the eve of the war, the staff of the institution, as always, had many ambitious plans: holding festivals, competitions and exhibitions, expanding the network of hobby groups... The interviewee did not believe that her northern neighbours would attack Ukraine until the last moment.

On February 24, at half past four in the morning, her husband’s brother called: “We have fighter jets flying overhead. They are coming to you”. And at the same moment, Viktoriia heard the sound of the planes. It was so scary that the whole family crouched down. Warning her staff that they should stay in safe places, Viktoriia took the children to the village. They left Kyiv at the sound of air raid alerts. The journey took a long time due to traffic jams.

Viktoriia’s husband is a soldier, so he immediately went to the military enlistment office: “If not me, who will protect my family?”. “The children see their father only on the phone,” she sighs. The only thing that motivated her at that crucial time was her work and her creative family. “I understood that it was up to me, as the director, to unite my team and bring them together,” she recalls. 

When classes resumed, children with the psychological trauma of war began to come: withdrawn, anxious. But art therapy helped them! The teaching staff has achieved tremendous results in restoring the psychological state and creative development of children. To provide psychological support, the institution has expanded the scope of art therapy. “Now all the children are psychologically traumatised, but we can treat them with art,” says Viktoriia.