Four years ago, the lives of millions of Ukrainians changed overnight. 3.7 million people were forced to flee their homes. Businesses, neighborhoods, hospitals, and infrastructure were reduced to rubble. Medical care, heating, electricity, and running water were all disrupted, and in some places, are still not available at all.
Over the past 4 years, 14,000 civilians were killed, and another 40,601 were injured. Now, 12.7 million people desperately need humanitarian assistance, including nearly 2 million children.
“Over the past year, Russia has decimated the energy infrastructure, making winter extremely difficult. There is often only 3-6 hours of power each day, and the heating systems have been destroyed or are only partially functional. People were already struggling mentally, physically, and emotionally, but now they are enduring temperatures of -4 to 14 degrees, and the suffering has reached new levels,” shared Duncan Fleck, Ukraine Country Director. “This was the winter we feared, and people are praying for Spring with little hope of peace.”
But through it all, you have helped Medical Teams International show up for the people of Ukraine. Since our teams first landed in-country 4 years ago, your support allowed us to care for those who are forced out, cut off, traumatized, and forgotten.
One of the greatest impacts of the war has been on the mental health of the Ukrainian people. 4 years of displacement, personal and national grief, stress, heightened anxiety, and trauma have taken their toll.
Our mental health officers work tirelessly to provide both 1:1 and group therapy, referrals, training, and therapeutic activities for people who have been pushed to their breaking point by the ongoing war—people like Oksana.
After many years serving as a community pillar and a haven for others, Oksana tragically lost her son and her home to the war’s unending violence. She hit a breaking point and was on a downward spiral of despair, stress, and exhaustion before finding a support group run by Medical Teams. This is her story.
Oksana is one of those rare people who naturally puts others first. Originally from a small town near the frontlines in Zaporizhzhia oblast — she has been volunteering with her local community since 2011, supporting seriously ill children and expanding her work as needs grew after 2014. She had dreams of opening a women’s clothing shop in 2022. Then the full-scale invasion began.
Instead of evacuating, Oksana stayed. Her apartment became an informal coordination point where volunteers distributed food, clothing, hygiene items, and basic supplies to civilians. She helped local hospitals source essential items and assisted with the care of dogs and cats left behind by evacuating families.
Through it all, she endured devastating personal losses — her 97-year-old mother died in the first days of the invasion, her home area was destroyed by airstrikes, and her son, who had joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was killed.
Yet she kept going. She relocated to Zaporizhzhia city in 2023 and continued volunteering — supporting hospitals, caring for displaced animals, and hand-making camouflage nets with fellow volunteers to help protect infrastructure. She was running, as she describes it, on “pure adrenaline”.
When Medical Teams International began offering mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) group sessions at her local volunteer hub, Oksana found something she hadn’t allowed herself in years: space to slow down. Through art therapy, breathing techniques, guided imagery, and group sharing, she began rebuilding her emotional reserves in a setting where she felt understood and safe.
She now paints at home regularly and uses relaxation techniques to manage stress — tools that help her continue showing up for others.
“If I didn’t have work and these sessions, I think I would have lost my mind. Here we relax, we breathe, and for a moment we feel like children again — calm and safe.”
For volunteers who are holding their communities together under impossible pressure, that moment of calm can make all the difference. Oksana is also a testament to how the support you give to Medical Teams has the power to expand exponentially—supporting one determined woman who will, in turn, go on to pour support and healing into countless others.
