Stories

Tag: child protection

  • How practitioners in Ukraine and across Europe built a self-sustaining peer learning network to support children

    How practitioners in Ukraine and across Europe built a self-sustaining peer learning network to support children

    When military fathers started arriving at her centre in Bulgaria, sharing challenges they faced with their own children, Irina V. found herself drawing on lessons learned not from textbooks, but from conversations with fellow practitioners scattered across a war zone.

    “What I learned about providing psychological first aid (PFA) to children actually helped me in working with parents of children in crisis,” Irina explained during a recent video call with professionals across Europe supporting children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

    That call was the first annual meeting of an entirely volunteer-driven network of practitioners – some working within kilometres of active combat – who teach each other how to better support children. This network emerged from an innovative certificate peer learning programme supported by the European Union’s EU4Health programme, developed by The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

    An organization like “Everything will be fine Ukraine” maintains operations within 20 kilometres of active fighting while supporting 6,000 children across three eastern regions. During online peer learning activities, some participants manage air raid interruptions, power outages, and repeated displacement of both staff and families they serve.

    “The most powerful solutions often emerge when professionals can learn directly from each other’s experience,” TGLF’s Charlotte Mbuh noted. “But knowledge sharing and learning are necessary but insufficient. Through the ‘Accelerator’ mechanism, we showed that participation results in measurable improvements in children’s wellbeing.”

    Learning in crisis

    The programme that connected Irina to her peers has achieved something that aid organizations typically spend years trying to build. In less than a year, 331 organizations representing 10,000 staff and volunteers joined a peer learning network that now reaches over one million Ukrainian children. Ninety-one volunteers across 13 countries now serve as focal points, recruiting participants and adapting materials to local contexts. The cost per participant is 87 per cent lower than European training averages. And rather than winding down as initial funding expires, the network is expanding.

    Most remarkably, 76 per cent of participants are based in Ukraine itself—not in the European host countries the programme originally planned to serve.

    IFRC’s longstanding commitment to integrating mental health into humanitarian response created the institutional framework that made this achievement possible. Speaking at the  EU4Health final event in Brussels in June, IFRC Regional Director for Europe Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen called IFRC’s effort “the most ambitious targeted mental health and psychosocial support response in the history of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.”

    TGLF’s specific focus was to explore how online peer learning could support Red Cross staff and volunteers, together with other organizations and networks that support children.

    IFRC’s Panu Saaristo explains: “Peer learning creates a horizontal approach where practitioners facing similar challenges can support each other directly. This is really consistent with our community-led and volunteer-driven action led by local volunteers. When tools and approaches are shared peer-to-peer, we see solutions that are both more sustainable and more locally owned.”

    The power of learning from and supporting each other

    What makes this network different is its rejection of the traditional aid model, where experts tell local workers what to do. Instead, practitioners learn from and support each other.

    The approach addresses a fundamental problem in crisis response: conventional training cannot keep pace with rapidly evolving challenges on the ground. When a teacher in Poland encounters a child showing signs of distress linked to their experiences, she can connect within hours to a social worker in Ukraine who has dealt with similar cases.

    Katerina W., who worked with Ukrainian refugee students in Slovakia, described creating “safe corners” and “art corners” where children could communicate when trauma left them unable to speak. She shared these techniques not with a supervisor, but with hundreds of peers facing similar challenges across Europe.

    “The practical knowledge and real-life examples inspired me to adapt my methods and approach challenges with greater empathy and creativity,” said Jelena P., an education professional from Croatia who participated in the network.

    Jennifer R., who founded Teachers for Peace to provide free online lessons to war-affected Ukrainian children, explains the urgent need: “Many of my students show signs of distress that affected their learning. My challenge is to equip volunteer teachers with the right tools so they can feel confident and support the students beyond language learning.”

    Building something that lasts

    The network provides resources for what aid workers call “psychological first aid” or “PFA” for children—the immediate support provided to children experiencing crisis-related distress. This includes listening without pressure, addressing immediate needs, and connecting children with appropriate services.

    But the real innovation lies in how knowledge spreads and gets turned into action. Practitioners connect to share challenges and problem-solve solutions. The agenda emerges from their actual needs, not predetermined curricula.

    “At traditional training, we acquire knowledge and practice skills to get diplomas or certificates,” explained Anna Nyzkodubova, a Ukrainian PFA leader who became a facilitator to support her colleagues. “But here, when we learn through peer-to-peer principles, we grow professionally and make our contribution to solving real cases and real challenges.”

    This peer learning model has proven so effective that the Geneva Learning Foundation announced in August it would continue the programme for five additional years. 

    “We saw that amongst those we had reached, this included practitioners working close to the front lines of armed conflict, working in very difficult conditions,” said Reda Sadki, Executive Director of The Geneva Learning Foundation, which coordinates the network. “Rather than limiting effectiveness, these challenging conditions revealed significant demand for peer learning. This is why we decided to continue these activities.”

    Scale through connection

    The network’s growth defies conventional wisdom about aid work. Rather than adding overhead, the growing size of the network enhances learning by providing more diverse experiences and perspectives. A social worker in eastern Ukraine might develop an approach that helps a teacher in Croatia facing similar challenges.

    Participants access six different types of activities, from short self-guided modules in multiple languages to intensive month-long programs where they implement specific projects and document results. The variety accommodates practitioners with different schedules and experience levels while maintaining quality through peer review and a strong child protection and mutual support framework.

    A different kind of aid

    The programme represents a broader shift in how international assistance might work. Rather than extracting knowledge from affected communities to inform distant decision-makers, it amplifies local expertise and creates connections between practitioners facing similar challenges.

    For Irina, working with Ukrainian refugees far from her home country, the network provided something invaluable: the knowledge that she was not alone, and that solutions existed within her professional community.

    “I realized the importance of separating psychotherapeutic long-term assistance and psychological first aid, especially when working with children who may be at risk of harming themselves,” she said, describing an insight that emerged from group discussions about recognizing when cases require specialist referral.

    As the programme enters its next phase, its founders are proposing additional innovations, including apps where practitioners can log experiences and reflect on challenges while building evidence of what works across different contexts.

    The model suggests a fundamental reimagining of how knowledge can strengthen local action in crisis response—not from experts to recipients, but between peers who understand each other’s reality because they live it every day. If properly supported, this model could reinforce its importance in the blueprint for future humanitarian action.

    References

    1. Sadki, R., 2025. How practitioners in Ukraine and across Europe built a self-sustaining peer learning network to support children. https://doi.org/10.59350/25pa2-ddt80
    2. Sadki, R., 2025. PFA Accelerator: across Europe, practitioners learn from each other to strengthen support to children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. https://doi.org/10.59350/redasadki.21155
    3. Sadki, R., 2025. Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children. https://doi.org/10.59350/dgpff-n9d63
    4. Sadki, R., 2024. Support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Bridging practice and learning through the sharing of experience. https://doi.org/10.59350/zbb4v-hay69
    5. The Geneva Learning Foundation and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2025. Діти у кризових ситуаціях, спільноти підтримки – Застосування першої психологічної допомоги для підтримки дітей, які постраждали від гуманітарної кризи в україні. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.14901474
    6. The Geneva Learning Foundation, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2025. Children in Crisis, Communities of Care – Psychological first aid for children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.14732092
    7. The Geneva Learning Foundation and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2024. Перша психологічна допомога дітям, які постраждали внаслідок гуманітарної кризи в Україні – Досвід дітей, опікунів та помічників. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.13730132
    8. The Geneva Learning Foundation and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2024. Psychological first aid in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine: Experiences of children, caregivers, and helpers. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.13618862

    The initial development and implementation of this programme (2023-2025) was funded by the European Union through a project partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). All ongoing activities, content, and their delivery from 1 September 2025 are the sole responsibility of The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF).

    Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2025

  • PFA Accelerator: across Europe, practitioners learn from each other to strengthen support to children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

    PFA Accelerator: across Europe, practitioners learn from each other to strengthen support to children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

    In the PFA Accelerator, practitioners supporting children are teaching each other what works.

    Every Friday, more than 240 education, social work, and health professionals across Ukraine and Europe file reports on the same question: What happened when you tried to help a child this week?

    Their answers – grounded in their daily work – are creating new insights into how Psychological First Aid (“PFA”) works in active conflict zones, displacement centers, and communities hosting Ukrainian families. These practitioners implement practical actions with children each week, then share what they learn with colleagues from all over Europe who face similar challenges.

    The tracking reveals stark patterns. More than half work with children showing anxiety, fear, and stress responses triggered by air raids, family separation, or displacement. Another 42% focus on children struggling to connect with others in unfamiliar places—Ukrainian teenagers isolated in Polish schools, families in Croatian refugee centers, children moved from eastern Ukraine to western regions.

    “We have a very unique experience that you cannot get through lectures,” said PFA practitioner and Ukrainian-language facilitator Hanna Nyzkodobova during Monday’s session, speaking to over 200 of her peers. “The Ukrainian context is not comparable to any other country.”

    Locally-led organizations leading implementation

    The programme’s most striking feature is its reach into organizations operating closest to active hostilities—precisely where support needs are most acute and convention training programs may not operate. For example, the charitable foundation “Everything will be fine Ukraine” implements approaches within 20 kilometers of active fighting, supporting 6,000 children across Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions. Weekly reports from their participants document how psychological first aid help when air raid sirens interrupt sessions or when families face repeated displacement.

    Posmishka UA, Ukraine’s largest participating organization with over 400 staff members, demonstrates how peer learning can support local actors directly at scale. During Monday’s learning session, Posmishka participants shared experiences from work in local communities that would be difficult to capture through conventional research or training approaches.

    South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University has integrated the program across 339 faculty and 3,783 students, bringing PFA into the work of its Mental Health Center. Youth Platform is now offering PFA to 600 young people aged 14-35 across five Ukrainian regions, while the All-Ukrainian Public Center “Volunteer” scales implementations to over 10,000 children nationwide.

    These partnerships reveal something crucial: when crisis response is most urgent, peer learning between local actors may prove more effective and sustainable than waiting for external expertise and costly training to develop solutions.

    Learning what works through implementation

    The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), within the project Provision of quality and timely psychological first aid to people affected by Ukraine crisis in impacted countries, supported by the European Union, created what they call the PFA Accelerator—a component of a broader certificate program reaching over 330 organizations supporting more than 1 million children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. This “Accelerator” methodology emerged from recognizing that new approaches are necessary in unprecedented crises. When children face trauma from active conflict, family separation, and repeated displacement simultaneously, guidelines can help but cannot tell you how to adapt to your specific situation.

    The breakthrough lies in turning scale from an obstacle into an advantage. Rather than trying to train individuals who then work in isolation, the programme creates learning networks where practitioners immediately share what works, what doesn’t, and why.

    Analysis of the first 60 action plans shows PFA Accelerator participants setting specific, measurable goals: 88% of those working with anxious children plan concrete emotional regulation activities rather than vague “support” approaches.

    Iryna from Kryvyi Rih reported that schools actively sought partnerships after her initial outreach succeeded: “They wanted us to come to them,” she said, describing how her mobile facilitation team exceeded the goal she set for herself in the Accelerator – because she managed to help school administrators recognize the value of Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children.

    Practical innovations emerge from necessity

    The weekly implementation requirement forces creative problem-solving with limited resources. Mariya from Zaporizhzhia described combining parent and child sessions: “We conducted joint sessions with psychosocial support, where together we learned calming techniques and did exercises oriented toward team building.” This approach addressed both parent stress and child needs while optimizing scarce time and space resources.

    In the PFA Accelerator, other participants can then share their feedback – or realize that Mariya’s local solution can help them, too. “The exchange of experience that happens on this platform is very important because someone is more experienced, someone less experienced,” noted participant Liubov during the Ukrainian session.

    Such practical adaptations become documented knowledge shared across the network. However, in the first week, although 82% identify colleague support as their primary resource, only 49% initially planned collaborative approaches involving other adults. The peer feedback process helps participants recognize such patterns and adjust their methods accordingly.

    Defying distance to solve problems together

    What emerges is not only better implementation of existing approaches—it’s new knowledge about how psychological support works under difficult conditions. The weekly reports create rapid feedback loops showing which approaches help children cope with ongoing uncertainty, how to maintain therapeutic relationships during displacement, and which interventions remain effective when basic safety cannot be guaranteed.

    The programme operates across Ukraine and 27 European countries, supported by over 80 European focal points and more than 20 organizational partners. This enables pattern recognition impossible without scale. Practitioners can better discern which approaches work across different contexts, how cultural differences affect intervention effectiveness, and which methods prove most adaptable to rapidly changing circumstances.

    The larger significance extends beyond Ukraine. By demonstrating how local actors can rapidly develop and refine effective practices when given proper structure for peer learning, the programme offers a model for responding to other crises where traditional expert-led approaches prove too slow or disconnected from local realities. Sometimes the most valuable expertise exists not in training manuals but in the accumulated experience of practitioners working directly with affected populations.

    Learn more and enroll in the PFA Accelerator: https://www.learning.foundation/ukraine-accelerator

    This project is funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of TGLF and IFRC, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

  • Supporting Ukrainian children: New peer learning platform to rapidly expand and scale the network of practitioners across Europe

    Supporting Ukrainian children: New peer learning platform to rapidly expand and scale the network of practitioners across Europe

    The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) are launching PFA Connect, a new platform for education, social work, and health professionals who support children from Ukraine. The platform builds on a new peer learning network launched by IFRC and TGLF in 2024 that is already reaching more than 2,000 practitioners from 27 European countries.

    This network responds to a critical need: while traditional training provides essential foundations, professionals benefit most from exchanging practical solutions with peers facing similar challenges. “I felt like I was part of a community of like-minded people who care about children’s mental health,” shares Halyna Fedoryshyn, an education professional from Ukraine who earned her first PFA certificate in 2024. “I had the opportunity to expand my social contacts with professionals outside of Ukraine,” .

    “PFA” refers to Psychological first aid (PFA), a practical way to support children experiencing crisis-related distress. This includes creating safe spaces, listening without pressure to talk, addressing immediate needs, and connecting children with appropriate support services. Through PFA Connect, practitioners will share experience to help problem-solve common challenges.

    Andreea-Elena Andras, a Red Cross health professional in Romania explains: “By hearing and learning from real stories, I learned new ways of linking with children and create a safe place, such as grounding, breathing and other techniques”.

    See what we learned from 873 practitioners…

    PFA Connect aims to address a critical need identified through work with practitioners: while training provides essential foundations, professionals build capacity through experience. Exchanging practical solutions with peers facing similar challenges can accelerate the ability to support children from Ukraine.

    PFA Connect will offer 30-minute online sessions in English and Ukrainian where practitioners share challenges and solutions. The platform aims to complement existing Red Cross activities by focusing on rapid exchange between professionals.

    The initiative operates as part of a broader European Union-funded project through EU4Health programme, involving the Ukrainian Red Cross and 27 other European Red Cross Societies, with the technical support and expertise of the Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Movement MHPSS Hub,

    “Throughout 2024, we have witnessed the power of practitioners learning from each other’s experiences,” says Panu Saaristo , Europe’s Regional Manager for Health and Care at the IFRC. “Our collaboration with The Geneva Learning Foundation represents our commitment to strengthen this peer learning approach, recognizing that the most effective solutions often come from professionals working directly with affected children.”

    “I feel more equipped to make a positive impact in my role,” reported Jelena Horvat Petanjko, an education professional from Croatia. “The practical knowledge and real-life examples inspired me to adapt my methods and approach challenges with greater empathy and creativity.”

    “The challenges facing professionals supporting Ukrainian children cannot be solved through traditional training alone,” explains Reda Sadki Sadki, Executive Director of The Geneva Learning Foundation. “What we have learned is that the solutions already exist within the network of practitioners. Our role is to connect them with each other.”

    PFA Connect will rapidly scale and expand this network, providing a rapid way for professionals to tap into the network’s collective intelligence in supporting Ukrainian children.

    The network’s growth so far has been driven by Ukrainian professionals, especially those working in fragile contexts.

    “Thanks to peer learning that is certified, I am able to provide better quality support and transfer knowledge about it to others,” says Alyona Kryvulyak, a social worker.

    “I had answers to my questions… I can use my knowledge in practice… I saw that there are many perspectives,” notes Olga Synytsyna, a social work professional in Ukraine.

    “In emergency response, we often focus on training and technical solutions,” says Reda Sadki. “But what we have learned from Ukrainian practitioners is that the most powerful solutions often emerge when professionals can learn directly from each other’s experience.”

    For mental health professional Natalia Tsumarieva in Ukraine, peer learning has shifted her approach to supporting Ukrainian children: “I began to pay more attention to providing support in the initial stages of getting to know children. Understanding the importance of teaching these skills to my non-psychology students has also been valuable.”

    While driven by those facing the most acute and urgent situations, this has become a truly Europe-wide project. As a Croatian education professional noted, “It is encouraging and inspiring to connect with people across Europe with the same goal and similar experiences. This shows that culture, gender and age are no barrier to mutual understanding and learning about supporting children.”

    “Connecting practitioners across borders creates new possibilities,” adds Reda Sadki. “A social worker in Ukraine might develop an innovative approach that could help a teacher in Croatia facing similar challenges. Our role is to make these connections possible at scale.”

    Professionals interested in joining the platform can register for the January 29 launch session, which begins at 4:00 PM CET. For additional information and to request your invitation, visit the PFA Connect platform. https://www.learning.foundation/ukraine

    Note: This initiative is funded by the European Union through the EU4Health programme. Its contents are the sole responsibility of TGLF and IFRC, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.