PURC supports art therapy camp for displaced children in Ukraine

Feb. 20, 2023 – The Pittsburgh Ukrainian Relief Coalition (PURC) has issued a $10,000 grant for the benefit of Warm Hands, an art therapy program for orphans and underprivileged children displaced from the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine because of the Russian invasion.

A 10-member staff, including master artists as well as a medical doctor and three psychologists, plays host to approximately 50 children during 10-day sessions at a camp in Zamlynna in northwestern Ukraine near the boarders of Poland and Belarus.

In addition to art classes, therapy includes culinary instruction, spiritual support, opportunities to learn and interact with nature and animals, including horseback riding, and sports.

Warm Hands is a “lighthouse” for the children in the program, giving them a much-needed respite from “sitting in darkness, without heat, without free will, with rockets coming from the sky,” said Tetyana Myalkovksa, the camp’s director.

PURC’s grant was issued to the Ukrainian Cultural and Humanitarian Institute (UCHI), a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit founded in 2002. PURC’s grant will be combined with funds donated to UCHI to underwrite a Warm Hands session scheduled for late March and early April. Funds will pay for food, transportation and housing as well as art supplies and camp staff. UCHI sponsored two art therapy sessions last year and two in January.