Vostok SOS Severodonetsk

Svitlana has joined the crew of Vostok SOS in April 2016. Initially she worked as an operator of the hotline. She provided consultations on various questions and searched for the resources for support. From February 2017 Svitlana has started work as event manager in the educational sphere. She organized creative workshops for children. She took part in the preparation for the festivals “May 32” and “Festival of thoughts”. Svitlana has taught robotics technology LEGO Education and LEGO BOOST in the Vostok SOS Hub in Sievierodonetsk. In 2018 Svitlana coordinated the mentoring program for entrepreneurs. She is the co-organizer of the children educational program “UN Model” in Luhansk Oblast for five years now. Today she continues to coordinate educational projects of the foundation and works with the network of the schools in Luhansk Oblast “Global education – we know the human rights”.

Irina joined Vostok SOS as volunteer in social psychological project “Hold the balance”. In 2017 she started to work on the “hotline” and then became a manager of social work. Particularly she participated in humanitarian missions of delivering relief consignments to the front-line settlements of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblast. Since 2019 Irina worked in humanitarian projects “Diakonie”, “Triangle”, “DRA” and “Libereco”. She provided social and humanitarian support for the people affected by fires in Luhansk Oblast in July and October 2020. At the moment Irina continues to provide support for the people in hard life conditions: people with cancer, children with disabilities and people of pre-retiree age who lost their job because of military conflict and COVID-19 pandemic.

Olexandra participated as a volunteer in the projects “Hold the balance” and “ZOLOTE-FEST”. In October 2017 Olexandra became the full member of the team. First she worked as an event-manager of the educational branch, working with the network of schools of Luhansk region in in the project “Global education – we know the human rights”. Olexandra also prepared the exhibition “Vostok-DOM” in the East of Ukraine and worked with the entrepreneurs in the mentor program of experience exchange between educators of Luhansk region and Estonia.
Olexandra was one of the founders and teachers of school of robotics technology LEGO Education and LEGO BOOST for the local children and traveling club in front-line villages based in the Sievierodonetsk regional office of Vostok SOS. Since autumn 2019 Olexandra works as coordinator of Sievierodonetsk Hub of Vostok SOS. She provides support for the forcibly displaced persons, develop and popularize Vostok SOS in Sievierodonetsk.

Dr. phil. Imke Hansen is a an interdisciplinary scholar specializing on experience of violence, memory, and trauma. She has been faculty at Hamburg University and at Uppsala University. Being a specialist in interviewing survivors of violence and war, she has collaborated in many Oral History projects.
With Vostok SOS, she works as a trainer and trauma therapist (Somatic Experiencing, EFT), supporting civil society development in the frontline area of Luhansk oblast. Combining theory and practice, she strives to enhance discourse about experiences of violence, trauma, and loss and the social capacities to overcome it.

Rusana joined the team of the fund in February 2017. She started her work as practicing psychologist. Within the frame of the project «Dyakoni» she has founded the club of child psychology for preschool children and their parents “Uchtyshka” and also the psychological club for adults “Dovira”. Rusana worked on the hotline, providing psychological and social support. She has organized trainings, workshops and art-therapy classes for parents with children, for teachers and high school students, people of the older age in the villages and cities along the demarcation line in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast. Together with the team of psychologists Rusana has worked on the creating of the methodical materials for the UNICEF project “Znayu-Diyu-Zminiuyu” (I know – I act – I change).
Now Rusana provides individual consultations and psychological-social support for the persons suffered from the military conflict, NGO and local inhabitants. She also maintains psychological clubs for teenagers and adults, works in the crew of mobile groups, providing regular and emergency help.