In 2023 our training activities focused on major emergencies in Ukraine and Turkey, with vital assistance given on the ground and online to those caring for traumatised children. We also helped UK specialists working in education, child protection, sexual assault and social work.

In Ukraine, as the recent invasion entered its second year in 2023, we increased the programme of training that we had introduced after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. This year we added specialised sessions on helping children to cope with grief following a traumatic bereavement, and on parenting children affected by conflict. This ongoing programme is a collaboration with in-country schools and NGOs including Family Circle Lviv, Volunteers and Helping Hands Ukraine.

For Ukrainian refugees abroad, we delivered psychological training to reach expatriate communities in London and Eire, and continued our links with St Mary’s Ukrainian School in London.

To help displaced Ukrainian children, we collaborated with the Rucksack Project, which published a picture book to help preschool and primary school children to process their experiences. “Rucksack” was illustrated by Ukrainian artist Lilia Martynyuk and written by children’s author Di Redmond, who has scripted for television series Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Bob The Builder. The picture book was accompanied by an advice booklet for parents and carers, which was co-written by our trustee Professor William Yule, our Ukrainian lead Kateryna Yavna and our trainer Professor Dennis Ougrin.

In Turkey, two major earthquakes struck in the middle of the night in February 2023, destroying 518,000 homes and killing 53,500 people. Children in such situations face the devastating effects of losing their homes and loved ones, restarting their lives in new and unfamiliar places, and recovering from their own injuries both physical and mental.

Within the first weeks we had reached out to local colleagues we had worked with after a previous earthquake, who were collaborating with the authorities in affected areas. A Turkish-language version of our key training manuals was produced, and an initial workforce were trained to disseminate our techniques to children’s groups on the ground. This included trauma recovery as well as training in traumatic bereavement.

In the UK, we ran a range of trainings according to local needs. For one local authority, we provided TRT training for their educational staff who support schoolchildren. For another, we trained the child protection staff and social workers of a children’s services division. And for a wider network of NHS and voluntary sector professionals, we provided training for those assisting children and young people who have survived rape and sexual assault.

As well as these activities, we held our usual Open Trainings, which are available online for any relevant individual to sign up and attend. These attracted participants from Europe, the USA and the UK, representing a range of groups including conflict zone workers, public service providers and voluntary sector professionals.

We would like to thank our bank of expert trainers for their wonderful work, which as ever has received highly appreciative feedback from the trainees. In 2023 our trainers were Amina Al-Yassin, Melinda Edwards, Aala El-Khani, Dorothy King, Dennis Ougrin, Laura Timms, David Trickey, Kateryna Yavna and Bill Yule.

Meanwhile we worked to professionalise our own organisation with the recruitment of our first two staff members on a part-time basis, to provide much-needed assistance with office management and communications. This will be vital for managing our trainings and supporting our fundraising in the future. We also continued to address governance issues by upgrading our policies and procedures. And we liaised throughout the year with the Children and War Foundation in Norway, from whom we have evolved.

Fundraising continued apace and was largely responsible for enabling the activities described in this Report. In 2023 we continued to rely on fundraising events and public donations as our main source of income, and the dedication of our fundraising committee was invaluable. We also began to explore raising funds from other sources, including trusts, foundations and major donors, which will be key to the future expansion of our work.

We are hugely grateful to all those who have contributed time and hard work to our achievements in this year, especially the unpaid committee members who have supported our fundraising, training activities and research plans. We could not do this without them – and we welcome conversations with anyone who can help us further.

Read our Annual Report and Accounts for 2023.