“Sunflower” is an 11-year-old Serhii Koldin’s drawing, whom our Save Ukraine team recently returned to Ukraine after a long stay in the Russian Federation. He created this illustration whereas an art therapy session at our Hope and Recovery Center. Before that, the boy had never drawn before and had no mastery in this sphere. But this picture is incredible because it is drawn with emotions and feelings. This is how Serhii feels about Ukraine.

In the summer of last year, Serhii and Ksenia Koldinykh, orphans who lived in a foster family in Vovchansk, Kharkiv Region, were separated. The brother’s adoptive parents sent him to the “Medvezhonok” camp in Krasnodar, and the 18-year-old sister enrolled in the technical school in Shebekino, Belgorod Oblast. After the de-occupation of the Kharkiv region, the children stayed in Russia, and the boy was soon taken in by a Russian family.

Ksenia decided that she and her brother must return to Ukraine. At first, Serhiyko also wanted this, but when their adoptive parents found out about it, began to put pressure on the boy, saying that nothing good awaits him in Ukraine. Although the sister was upset, she didn’t give up and went with our team to find her brother in the enemy’s country.

Now the boy is undergoing rehabilitation in one of our centers together with other children who suffered psychological trauma due to Russian aggression. Art therapy has a very encouraging effect on him. Obviously, it is visible in his picture “Sunflower”, where a lonely plant, despite all its troubles, confidently reaches for the sun.

The drawings with daisies are the work of other children in our center. Incredibly amazing and talented. Here, at home in Ukraine, in safety and comfort, the children are blooming again. They return to childhood, return to normal life.

0 800 333 129 – free hotline of the Save Ukraine rescue network supported by USAID Ukraine.