“My favourite hero is you!” The IDP psychologist helps people overcome their trauma of displacement

“To all of those, who were forced to flee, who lost their homes and are trying to find themselves in a new place: do not be afraid of changes, do not lose faith in your own future, value and preserve your life,” – said 39-year-old Yaroslava Palchyk, psychologist from UNHCR’s local partner Charitable Foundation Rokada, who was displaced from Bucha in 2022.
Before the full-scale invasion, Yaroslava worked as a child psychologist and had her own physical rehabilitation office. She spent 12 years helping children with cerebral palsy. When Russian troops invaded her town, a mere damaged building was all that remained of her life-long job.
“These two days felt like an eternity. An plane was shot down above my apartment on February 24. The next day, a shell landed 300 metres from my house. This was the moment I decided to leave the town,” – Yaroslava recalls.

Not knowing where to go and what to do, she said that fate decided it all.
Together with her children, 17-year-old daughter Viktoria and 7-year-old son Tymofii, they left their home and moved in Zhytomyrska oblast. Whilst there, she was looking for a psychologist for herself and children. That’s how she met Lesya, the psychologist from charitable foundation Rokada. Later she asked if Yaroslava agrees to give an interview on Czech television to speak about her experience of displacement.  This was the moment  when she met Kateryna, the coordinator of charitable foundation Rokada in Zhytomyr. When Kateryna found out that Yaroslava was a certified psychologist, she offered to join Rokada’s team.
Currently, Yaroslava helps parents, and their children adapt to their new lives, teaches them how to effectively overcome fear and address stress, and how to talk with children about war.

In addition, she organizes training for rehabilitation specialists in the inclusive-resource centre of Zhytomyr oblast, as well as training for parents with children with disabilities.
“I remember a small boy from Donetsk oblast, who came to Zhytomyr with his parents. They lived in a remote village, in an old hut, which was given to them by the local community. Our mobile team conducted primary consultations, and when we were going to leave, the boy approached me and said: “You know, before today Spiderman was my most favourite hero, but from now on my favourite hero is you!”. I cried during the trip home. That was the moment I realized what important work we were doing and how valuable it is for the others.”
Since the beginning of the war, UNHCR Ukraine and partners have provided protection information, legal advice on civil documents, psychosocial counselling and social service support to 1,348,777 displaced and war-affected people.