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Public organization MARTIN-club is a non-commercial, non-political humanitarian organization that, since 1999, has been providing comprehensive assistance and protection to women, children and people affected by military operations in Ukraine. Currently, our organization works in 5 regions of Ukraine and provides: social support of the most vulnerable persons, provision of psychological assistance; consulting on social issues; providing humanitarian assistance, legal and legal assistance, shelter and specialized services to women and children affected by violence. Information here:

The good witches of "Vilna" have already started preparations for the most mystical day of the year - Halloween. First, they conjured up the appropriate holy atmosphere with the help of our visiting fairies under the guidance of needlewoman Anastasia. The girls created Halloween attributes: bright toadstools, witches' hats, cute ghosts and many other creepy but charming crafts. Glue, paper, glitter and paints - and the "Vilna" space turned into a wizard's workshop. Then they added the drawings of female visitors under the guidance of teacher Yevgenia👩🎨, and during the English lesson they held a performance in the appropriate style. Finally, in order not to go hungry, they held a master class on creating a "magical" pumpkin cream soup Voila! Preparation for Halloween is complete! We invite everyone who is on the side of good to the space of creativity, self-development and safe communication - in "Vilna"! Kamyansk Taras Shevchenko Ave., 33a +38 066-001-86-98 The project is implemented by the public organization "MARTIN-club" within the humanitarian response of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine with the financial support of USAID (USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance).

My favorite child was born in the family of a 60-year-old chess master, a turner from a metallurgical plant, and a 25-year-old beautiful janitor. Sasha also had a sister, Olena, a year and a half younger. My mother had a mental disorder, from time to time she was treated for a long time, and then the children were taken care of by the grandmother. More or less, the family kept afloat, and everything would be fine if it weren't for the 90s. My father stopped being paid his salary, he got drunk, my mother began to fall into an insane abyss more and more often, and she died in the same year as my grandmother. In this whole nightmare, seven-year-old Sashko didn't survive very well, from time to time he slept in the entrance, so when he was taken to a boarding school, he already knew that he could sleep on the floor, and this could be a salvation. ... in street life, Santyor kept aloof. He was not touched, now I understand why. That is why he was not touched in the zone. Because he was born with genetic charisma, which you always feel animalistically with that organ that has not yet been invented. Or maybe ass, who knows. In any case, the boy who did not beat anyone was respected and allowed to live his life. Sanya is lonely, that's why she is still in this world. When the whole party was addicted to drugs, my favorite boy just ate sweets and stole impiously. For the sake of force, not for profit. In one district out of five in the city, 97 criminal proceedings were opened against him and he was a witness in another 12. And he knew that at 14, as soon as he became a defendant, he would sit down. ... when Sashka was 9, we made the first and last attempt to return the child to the boarding school from which he ran away. We went into the director's office, having previously almost on our knees persuaded Sashka to go with us. There were three of us: Robert, a Pole, a believer, an outstanding teacher, me, then still a psychologist from the social service, and a smelly, sewing child who held me tightly with one hand by my pants with the other. The headmistress, seeing Sashka, said: ah, is that you? and, addressing us: do you know that he sucks from porters for cigarettes at the bazaar? I still regret that I did not cling to her house on her head. I am still immensely ashamed in front of the boy that we were so stupid then that we did not fight for them in the full sense of the word. Because such creatures do not understand what they have done to children, they only understand force. I write and hate, but 20 years have passed, she has long since died, this well-deserved criminal with a life-long pedagogy. We silently left the office and Sasha went with us. No one ever looked for him again. We then took our first steps in our business, and Sashka was their main decoration. He was almost always cheerful, adored animals, ate from the same plate with his cat Dima, and by the way he began to sing songs like "goodbyamericaoooo" after dinner, we understood: Santyor had satisfied his hunger and was happy. Like everyone else, he ran away from us a hundred times and returned a hundred times. He was imprisoned on the second day of his 14th birthday. On this holiday, I gave him the only flowers in his life. When he returned from the zone for the fifth time, he came to my house, we hugged and cried, and he reminded me of them: do you remember, those white, smelly ones, I was ashamed of them, because I am a boy, and you gave , and I couldn't help but take it, because you gave it to me. I did not remember those flowers. Now he is 32, he has a family, the little one was named Denis, as the man I love. Sasha works on construction sites, it's hard. And I am happy that the core in his soul did not allow him to make money from war and terrorism, although it is very difficult to survive with his profession where he is. I respect him a lot, although we haven't talked for 3 years, he is in my heart forever. One of the five from the 90s who is still alive, one of the few in my entire life, with whom I can talk about everything, freely, without obstacles and misunderstandings, in the same language, although we live very different lives. #Donetsk_Dnipro

#Children's wars. Public activists published an open appeal on social networks under this hashtag. Yes, they are trying to reach the Ministry of Social Policy and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko. They are trying to explain to officials that Ukraine must fulfill and not contradict the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Activists say that - in 7 months, only 6 children out of 580,000 received the status of a child who suffered as a result of hostilities and armed conflicts. One of the initiators of the appeal, Daria Kasyanova, writes in her public on the social network: "Open appeal of Pavlo Rozenko For 7 months from the date of adoption of Resolution N268, only 6 children of Ukraine received the status of a child injured as a result of military actions, out of more than 580 thousand. The reason is simple: the prescribed procedures do not provide for the protection of the child's rights and therefore do not work. For six months, the working group finalized the resolution so that Ukraine could fulfill the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and protect its own children. But the process of making changes is artificially slowed down all the time. The status is needed first of all in order to assess how many children have suffered; how much professional help is needed; what number of specialists should be prepared for rehabilitation, what state programs should be adopted for their protection. This concerns migrant children; children living in the gray zone and along the front line; children living in uncontrolled territory; children of ATO soldiers". We will also provide the text of the appeal:

New safe centers for children were opened in three cities of the Dnipropetrovsk region. They provide free social and psychological services to support both children and their parents, including IDPs. The coordinator of the project "Support service for children in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Novomoskovsk, Dnipro" Mykyta Semenov, facilitator of socio-emotional education for children Hanna Volodina and specialist in the development of Global Communities partnership Aryna Hrytsenko-Kharkovska told Open about this. Public organization "MARTIN-club", under the project "Support service for children in Kryvyi Rih, Novomoskovsk, Dnipro", created 2 safe spaces and 1 mobile team for classes with children of different ages in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih and Novomoskovsk. "MARTIN-club" implements this activity in partnership with Global Communities within the framework of the CLEAR program, which is financed by the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development. "MARTIN-club" is a public organization with 25 years of experience in the mission "Warmth and protection for children in need". Since 2014, he has specialized in helping war victims. During the full-scale invasion, thousands of children lost their parents, killed at the front or under shelling. They hear air raid sirens every day, learn about deaths and injuries in the families of friends and relatives, and come under fire themselves. Millions of children have lost their homes and their familiar environment. Children learn in new conditions, have to adapt, are forced to live with strangers in a crowd, without having their own space. Children and adolescents from the frontline and de-occupied territories do not have the opportunity to see their friends, and for children communication with peers is not a desirable, but a necessary condition for development and socialization. In a traumatized environment, children cannot develop in accordance with their age, and adults are often unable to give children the much-needed stability and support. Therefore, our goal is to help in these situations in every possible way. Returning a child's childhood is the task of the MARTIN-club NGO and the project "Children's support service in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Novomoskovsk, Dnipro" is one of the powerful tools for its solution, says Nikita Semenov. On the basis of newly created safe spaces, children will be able to spend time in an atmosphere of care and attention to their needs. Art therapy classes, master classes, social-emotional training, psychological and legal consultations, individual and group classes with psychologists will be held for them. Support is also provided for family members, parents or guardians. All services are provided free of charge. And the schedules for visiting the spaces are made so that it does not interfere with learning at school. "Every child is under stress now. And she often does not understand what it is at all, what to do with it and who can turn to for help. Our method of social-emotional learning helps to form three skills in a child. The first is self-awareness, when an understanding of emotions and the state experienced appears. The second is when the child learns to empathize. The third is when she becomes involved and can help herself by adjusting her stress level and even help others. All these skills will be developed through dialogue methods, interesting stories, all kinds of games, art therapy exercises and much more. We focus our work on an individual approach to the child, and our teacher acts as a facilitator who gently guides the process, does not pressure, but goes along with the children along this path. It's definitely not like at school," says Hanna Volodina. The project "Children's Support Service of the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Novomoskovsk, Dnipro" envisages the involvement, first of all, of children from the families of IDPs, local residents who were evacuated and returned. At the same time, any child who needs it can get help in these spaces. They employ trainers, psychologists, art therapists, social educators, and lawyers. There is an escort of social workers. In general, the organizers of the project plan to help about 2,000 people by the end of the year. The uniqueness of the project is the created mobile team in the Novomoskovsk community. It is actually on wheels, and the form of its operation is somewhat different from the spaces in Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. The main emphasis is on art therapy with elements of social-emotional training. "I represent the international organization Global Communities, which has been working in Ukraine since 2016. For 8 years, we have been implementing the USAID DOBRE program, which provides support to communities in the process of decentralization of power. And with the start of a full-scale invasion, implementation began from the CLEAR program with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (USAID's BHA). The overall objective of the program is to meet the immediate needs of people affected by the war, while supporting local communities in their own response. We are glad to support our partners in the implementation of such important initiatives and contribute to the development of their organizational capacity", says Aryna Hrytsenko-Kharkovska. Space for children in Dnipro Railway station Livoberezhny-3, str. Hetmanska 7, "Olimpiyskiy" housing complex. T: (093) 281 76 83. Space for children in the Kryvyi Rih 32A Metalurgiv Ave., (former Rustavelli restaurant). T: (067) 343 14 14. Mobile team in Novomoskovsk you can contact by phone: (067) 343 18 18.   The material is taken from the website https://opentv.media The author is Tetyana Kiryanova

A couple with two children and a grandfather settled in the open air in Dnipro. The family pitched a tent in Tunelnaya Balka near the path that the townspeople used to walk on fine days. People passed by the family without stopping and without asking any questions: why the family was here, whether they have housing, money, or need help. A month and a half passed like that. Finally, in the fall, a caring Dnipro resident called the mobile brigade and informed about the family in difficult circumstances. Bohdan and Svitlana, employees of the mobile team of social and psychological assistance of the "MARTIN-club", went to the place and talked with the family. It turned out that they are internally displaced persons from Bakhmut and Siverskodonetsk. After the evacuation to the Dnipro, they lived in a shelter for some time. But later the price for accommodation increased, and the family did not have enough funds to pay the rent. Then they found a new home. Without signing the agreement, they gave the money two months in advance and drove away. Three weeks passed, and the owner appeared ー stated that the family had two hours to vacate the premises. Since no contracts were signed and they were in a foreign city, people were confused. They did not call the police, but settled in a log. Our mobile team consulted the family: they told what services of the organization they could use and offered temporary housing. The family refused. But the psychologist Svitlana did not give up: she called and asked about the family's affairs, warned about rains and cold weather, said that children cannot live in such conditions. In the end, the family accepted the offer ー everyone was moved to a shelter for a temporary stay, and later to a new home that the family found. Safety and respect is everyone's right. To be silent is not an option, to speak is to protect yourself.   Our phones: Dnipro: +38 050 7300889 +38 067 6105801 Pavlograd: +38 067 4524216 +38 099 4524216 Kryvyi Rih +38 067 4524215 +38 099 4524215 Kamyansk +38 067 4524231 +38 099 4524231 The mobile brigades work with the support of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in coordination with the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine. The services of the mobile brigades are provided thanks to the financial support of the US government (USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance ), Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine (UHF).

Sexual violence is an inconspicuous but powerful and destructive weapon that the occupying forces use against Ukrainians, say the specialists of the Center for Helping the Survivors, a specialized service of the MARTIN club that works with victims. 274 cases of conflict-related sexual violence (SNPK) have been recorded by the Prosecutor General's Office since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. This is far from always rape, but also any other acts of a sexual nature related to war. Hanna Tartynskyi, the coordinator of the Center for Helping the Survivors, says that the SNPK is most often experienced in captivity or under occupation: "Some criminal acts are not recognized by the person as sexual violence. Forced exposure, intimidation of rape and humiliation and blackmail with a certain sexual context, forced pregnancy or abortion, forcing to contemplate the suffering of another person - all these are sexual violence during conflict." The Russian occupiers use SNPK as a means of intimidating civilians to achieve certain military goals. They do not seek sexual pleasure, but want to humiliate, torture, subjugate the will. Victims often feel guilty for what happened to them. Although in reality, there was simply no other choice in those circumstances, explains Andriy Baev, a psychologist at the Center for Helping the Survivors: "The victims of the criminal actions of the Russian military are under no circumstances responsible for their actions. It is almost always a matter of survival. And human life is much more important than social prejudices." The real number of victims of the SNPK is much higher than the official statistics. These are war crimes, and therefore they have no statute of limitations. You can contact the law enforcement agencies even after a year, two, five or ten years, says Yulia Szegeda, a human rights defender and lawyer at the Center for Helping Survivors: "You can submit a statement that a person has been injured at any time. Today, people who have survived SNPK can receive not only psychological satisfaction, but also material satisfaction through reparations and intermediate reparations introduced in Ukraine to support victims of SNPK ". The Center for Helping Survivors in Dnipro guarantees confidentiality. Specialists will help overcome the psychological consequences of violence. And also contact the law enforcement officers and record the fact of the crime - but only if the person himself wants it. The Center for Helping Survivors in Dnipro is located at 32 Voskresenska Street. Phone number 0992452121 The Center for Helping Survivors in the Dnipro was created on the initiative of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, with the assistance of the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, in partnership with UNFPA, the UN Population Fund in Ukraine, thanks to the financial support of the governments of Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, in cooperation with local authorities and the MARTIN-club NGO.

The mobile brigade received a report from the police about domestic violence against a young woman by her mother. During an emergency visit to the victim's address, the mobile team of social and psychological assistance found out that she was in a depressed state, said that she did not see the point of living any longer, and, according to her, was even thinking of ending her life. During the conversation, she said that she has been living under psychological pressure since childhood. The situation in the family worsened after the death of her father, life became unbearable for her. She hoped for an improvement in relations, so she agreed to her sister's persuasion and mother's promises and gave up her share of the apartment through a notary. But from that moment, according to her, she became completely powerless in her family. Her mother and sister could not let her into the apartment after work, the locks were changed several times, they were not allowed to use gas and water, she could not wash and wash her clothes. Relatives did everything possible to get the woman to leave the apartment. The victim's physical and psychological condition led to the fact that she lost her job and because of this, her mother denied her food. During the meeting with our specialists, she cried and said that she had not slept for three nights. The mobile brigade offered to get a job at the city's Day Center for victims of domestic and gender-based violence, issued a winter set of dignity. Our specialists accompanied the woman to the crisis room of the Day Center, where the tired victim slept for more than a day. During her stay in the safe place, the woman was provided with psychological and legal counseling, the calm environment and the safe place helped the woman decide on her plans for the future. Now she lives in the regional center, got a job. She says that she is grateful to everyone who helped her make such a decision and get out of the circle of psychological and economic violence in the family Mobile teams work with the support of UNFPA, the UN Population Fund in Ukraine, in coordination with the Office of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine. The services of mobile brigades are provided thanks to the financial support of the governments of the USA (USAID Office of Humanitarian Assistance), Canada, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Finland, Denmark and the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine (UHF). * the photo is illustrative

Program of the art festival Horizontal 4.0. The festival will be held on November 24 at 1:00 p.m. in the premises of the Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture Krutohirny Uzviz, 21a Horizontal 4.0 is dedicated to the people who, in the face of war, do not give up, seek and find help, and those of us who provide that help. At the festival, the MARTIN Club will present all relevant services, tell about its history, and provide an opportunity to participate in most of the activities currently held by the MARTIN Club for people. #horizontalfest #dccc #martinclub #csomartinclub #festival #dnipro

The youngest of all, Ihor Lyovkin, was 3 years old when, together with his brother Kostyantyn, who had already turned 9, they came to our social service to warm up and have a hot meal. A whole dozen of young guests stank so much that our eyes popped out. The condition under which they could enter the premises was to leave their drugs, glue and varnish in bags on the floor in the corridor. This did not help at all: the smell of acetone, boiled to the bottoms of pants, palms eaten by scabies, ears that had never seen water stood like a trunk above house 83 on Botanic Vavilov Street. One of the boys hit Igor on the cap, and a huge cloud of dust flew out of it. "His mother was taken to the morgue." We were paralyzed. Like in the morgue?? Kostya told how he went home to Kirovskoe, entered the house, found Igor and his mother, who were sleeping on the floor, facing the wall. Brother had been hungry for a long time, Kostyl brought him bread and meat. They ate and went to bed. In the morning, Kostya went for a walk again, leaving Igor at home. I came in the evening, my mother was still sleeping. The child realized that something was wrong, called a neighbor, the neighbor called the police. Mother had been dead for four days. Kostya often saw her drunk and considered it lucky that she did not touch them and slept. This time forever. The boys' sister, Marina, was already living in a foster family at the time, and she did not survive this horror with her brothers. The children waited for the ambulance, then at night they walked along the road to Makiivka. There was no point in staying at home: neither food, nor warmth, nor a mother, nor a conscious adult who would at least take her to the police department or the hospital. The next day at noon, they were already sitting in our office and eating mushroom soup... Igor was sent to an asylum ( Irina Sibileva , do you remember him?). AND Kostya ran and ran, and since the child was not local, everyone had to sneeze, they didn't look for him. Kostya lived in the Martin Club from time to time. And with us, he couldn't stand it, he would rush out into the street to "puff", he was emotional, kind and very attached to Kuzbas-lac. Tanks with this liquid stood in his native town on the territory of the zone. Someone brought it there and didn't use it. The most gifted business children risked their lives and climbed into the tank with varnish, inhaling vaporized acetone, scooped the varnish into bags, brought it to Makiivka and sold it to their friends for money. Money was spent on bread and ...glue Moment. We had a party when our children came one day and complained to us that the nail polish was all dry. It happened two years after the first of them opened this damned Klondike. ...once we played in the theater with the children, staged a home play about seven goats. Kostya crawled under the table, pretending to be a little goat, and from there he turned to the wolf: he got out of here, now my mother the goat will come, she will heap such stars on you for us that your stomach will flake! And Kostya was the only one who loved and could read. He hanged himself in prison when he was 17. He was convicted of murder, which was actually committed by a girl he was in love with. Oksana, nicknamed Shepelyava due to a congenital cleft in her jaw, was pregnant by someone, but she slept in the heating circuit next to Kostyl. Once, out of jealousy, another girl pounced on her, and she stabbed her. Kostya went to the zone for her, and they say that he did not survive captivity. The girl came to us on the eve of the new year. She was 8 months old, with a broken leg, which she got when she jumped out of the window of the venereal dispensary, where she was treated for syphilis. The policemen and doctors brought her from the maternity hospital, because they were afraid to search for her again along the heating lines. It happened right at the time of the Christmas spiral, during which all those present share their dreams for the future. Oksana dreamed of giving birth to a girl in a pink hat, to be a good mother, to have a home and a husband... A month later, we found her daughter among the abandoned newborns in the hospital. My mother was 16. I don't know about her future fate. UPD. Oksana died of drugs at the age of 20 Photo by Andrej Naterer #Donetsk_Dnipro