Care for the Team as a Resilience Strategy: A Series of Events in Kyiv

In January–February 2026, a series of events took place in Kyiv within the framework of an activity aimed at supporting the team’s mental health, implemented as part of the project “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the ‘Public Resources and Initiatives’ Charity Foundation”  carried out by the Charity Foundation with technical support from  UN Women Ukraine and funding from the The United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF). WPHF is a flexible and rapid financing instrument that supports high-quality initiatives aimed at strengthening the capacity of local women in conflict prevention, crisis and emergency response, and leveraging key peacebuilding opportunities.

For the Kyiv team of the Foundation, a series of supportive activities was organized, aimed at preserving internal resources and strengthening self-regulation skills under conditions of prolonged wartime strain. These included a facilitated group support meeting, an art practice using the neurographica method, and a practical offline session on stabilization techniques and nervous system care. Participants became acquainted with breathing and body-based exercises, grounding tools, and methods of gently reducing tension, and also mastered neurographica as an accessible tool for self-support. Particular attention was paid to developing their own simple stabilization algorithms that can be applied in difficult or tense situations.

The President of the Foundation, Olena Tanasiychuk, emphasized: “We work with people who have experienced loss, evacuation, and prolonged stress. But the team of a humanitarian organization also becomes exhausted—especially during wartime. It is important for us to support those who support others every day. Caring for the team’s mental health is a strategic investment in the organization’s resilience and in the quality of assistance we provide.”

Oksana Palagecha, Coordinator of the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Veterans direction, added: “Such activities allow us to restore resources, reduce accumulated tension, and learn to work with stress consciously. When a team has self-regulation tools, its cohesion and effectiveness increase. This directly affects the quality of support provided to veterans and their families.”

The series of events became an important step in systematically building a culture of mental health care within the Foundation and strengthening its resilience in wartime conditions.

This publication was prepared with the financial support of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), but this does not imply that the views and content expressed herein are officially endorsed or recognized by the United Nations.

Background information:

The United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is the only global mechanism created exclusively to support women’s participation in peace and security processes, as well as in humanitarian action. Governed by representatives of civil society, governments, and the UN, WPHF is a multi-partner trust fund that mobilizes urgently needed financing for local women-led organizations and works alongside women on the front lines to build lasting peace. Since 2016, WPHF has funded and strengthened the capacity of more than 1,000 local women’s civil society organizations working on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and implementing humanitarian action in 41 crisis-affected countries worldwide.