The war has shown not only the depth of human cruelty, but also immense human capacity to do good things. The way Ukrainians help each other these days is an example of true humanity. Often, the most responsive are those who needed help themselves yesterday –they know better than anyone how important support is. Read the story of Olha Panarina from the Luhansk region, who did not break down herself and pulls others out of their emotional abyss.
More than two and a half years ago, after leaving the shelled Siverskodonetsk for a remote small village in the Zakarpattia region, Olha Panarina did not hide her deep trauma. There was no way to hide it. Olha was hurt by literally everything, and, first of all, by the enemy flags over the ruins of the Luhansk region and the betrayal of some of her countrymen. And the pain manifested itself in her inability to sit down at the piano and touch the keys.
But, despite the pain, she was open to help, especially psychological. Now she provides assistance herself – to IDPs, children and adults – in Svaliava, the Zakarpattia region.
She came as a client, started several courses and encouraged to expand activities
Now, in 2024, when asked to answer the question “who are you?” in one word, Olha Panarina, after thinking for a while, says “art therapist.” However, she is also a musician, teacher, composer, poet, presenter, stand-up comedian, manager… But now, at the age of “a bit over 50,” in the third year of a full-scale war, she has come to the conclusion: all her professional experience can be summarized in the word “art therapy.”
“Olia first came to us as a client – two and a half years ago, when we were just starting to work in Zakarpattia. She participated in the training for women that we organized, received humanitarian aid… Not only she, but also her family – daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter – joined our activities,” says Oksana Ochkurova, head of the NGO “Center for Joint Development ‘Effective Community’.”
After relocating from the Luhansk region, the organization she heads has been working in Svaliava, the Zakarpattia region.
Then Oksana and other public activists from the Luhansk region began looking for volunteers willing to work with children in the Starobilsk hub established by the Effective Community and Starobilsk District Military Administration in Svaliava. First of all, they needed people with teaching experience.
“Olia was among the first to respond.” She underwent additional training in Svaliava and Kyiv and added social work with adults to her competencies and experience in working with children,” says Oksana Ochkurova.
In a short time, Olha Panarina organized fairy tale therapy and music therapy classes for children, the Art Source course for adults, the Wheel of Emotions game, etc. at the hub.
The best advertisement for her classes was the woman’s charisma and sense of humor. Anyone who came to her classes or brought a child there was sure to tell their friends about it – and there were more and more people willing to join the classes.
Meanwhile, Olha developed a course in logorhythmics, a combination of music, movement, voice and various drills that helps develop speech, hearing and attentiveness. Now she is developing a speed reading course.
Some of her classes are attended by children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities.
“Unfortunately, children in wheelchairs cannot attend our events, as the building is not adapted for this,” says Oksana Ochkurova.
Until now, the Starobilsk hub, where Panarina holds classes, has been operating on the second floor of a two-story building. However, thanks in no small part to Olha’s initiative, it is gradually starting to occupy the first floor. They have already renovated the premises for a physical therapy room, and it is already operational. However, a few finishing touches are to be added for it to be fully operational. In particular, a piano that has already been purchased has to be brought here – an instrument that personified Olha Panarina’s dreams and pains at the beginning of the full-scale war.
From extracurricular activities to art therapy
“Previously, we had no word art therapy in our vocabulary. But in fact, extracurricular activities are very similar to it,” Olha Panarina says.
She has worked in the extracurricular system for over 25 years. Most of this time, she led an award-winning artistic group, the Children’s and Youth Singing Group “Usmishka” of the Siverskodonetsk City Center for Children’s and Youth Creativity. ‘Led’ is a too general word in her case. She arranged voices, performances, organized events, made costumes, wiped away tears, listened to confessions…
Over these two and a half decades, Olha has trained about two thousand children. To calculate their exact number, you need to multiply 25 years by 75 – that’s how many children the team enrolled each year. This huge team is a family to her – no exaggeration. And the children from the first enrollment in the late 1990s, who are no longer children, are especially close to her.
Many of them joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Some of them died.
For many of Olha’s graduates, her rented house and yard in a Zakarpattia village near Svaliava became a refuge during two and a half years of the full-scale war, as it became impossible for all of them to live in their native Siverskodonetsk.
But in May 2024, “Usmishka” – like all extracurricular institutions in the Luhansk region – suspended its activities. Before that, the team had been fully functioning for two years in relocation. They held online rehearsals, performed in live concerts, and confirmed the title of “Exemplary Artistic Group.”
“In 2014, the IDPs who came to Siverskodonetsk en masse needed psychological help just as much as they do now. And we helped them in the same way then,” says Olha.
And now Olha has channeled all her experience, energy, and talent, which she used to realize in extracurricular activities, into art therapy.
About the sense of humor and the sacredness of the piano
…Svaliava is a small town, much smaller than Siverskodonetsk. And after Olha started conducting art therapy classes, people very soon began to recognize her on the streets and in stores.
Sometimes, in the morning before classes, she goes to a store… And the saleswomen say: “Good morning! Could you please conduct an express art therapy for us right now, while there are no customers?” And Olha replies: “Okay… Let’s close the door and start swearing… Because swearing therapy also has a great effect.”
Over these two and a half years, Olha was able to help herself, not only others. And the witness to this is the piano, which will soon move in one of the rooms of the Starobilsk hub, especially for Olha.
Olha has a unique relationship with the instrument. She has spent almost her entire life with it. And immediately after moving to Zakarpattia, she admitted with deep pain that she missed it terribly. However, she was not ready to buy a piano either – not because she lacked money, but psychologically. She was not ready to touch the keys. And if someone offered to give her an instrument as a gift – she refused flatly. With a pain that was difficult to explain to outsiders.
But, finally, the pain transformed…
“We offered Olha to buy a synthesizer, saying that it would be easier to deliver… But for her, it was not a living instrument, she refused. And then we found an old piano,” says Oksana Ochkurova.
What is left to do is to deliver the instrument, which the Effective Community activists had purchased for Olha, for her classes.
And you should have heard how fondly Olha talks about it: “…It’s old … Someone painted it almost like Petrykivka – with flowers, grass, butterflies, and God knows what else… The joints were filled with paint… But it’s good that they were filled – no one has touched it, it sounds just right … Once we find a team of movers with special straps, that’s it.”
Author: Yulia Sabaeva
*All photos are provided by the author.
Supported by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Government.