Dear Friend,

Close to one billion people struggle with mental health issues worldwide, a staggering number that grows in times of disaster, war and other health crises. As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re shining a spotlight on the mental health heroes we count on to care for people facing trauma.

In Ukraine, psychologists like Olena are providing critical mental health care to displaced people at Project HOPE’s support center in Kyiv. The need for mental health support in Ukraine — where the horrors of war have continued for over a year — is at an all-time high.

Olena leads group and individual therapy sessions, mental health workshops, art therapy, and more. With your support, we’ve established eight psychosocial support centers in Ukraine where psychologists like Olena have seen over 25,882 patients to date.

With rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression rising, the work of mental health professionals is crucial to the future wellbeing of Ukraine’s children and families. We help reach families with mental health support as they settle into new communities both inside and outside of Ukraine, so they can grieve the lives — and people — they had to leave behind.

This includes training local health workers to provide mental health and psychosocial support. To learn more, follow Olena along a day in her life as a psychologist at Project HOPE’s psychosocial support center in Kyiv.