Caritas Kyiv organizes self-help club for clients in crisis living circumstances

19.06.2014, Kyiv
Some days ago meeting of self-help club was held in Caritas Kyiv. It was created in the beginning of March with aim to support women who found themselves in difficult situation.

Director of local Caritas Fr. Roman Syrotych retells: “Every week many people in need of help address us. Difficult living circumstances force individuals to look for rescue, advice and care. Some of these people need material support, others – we have to be honest – don’t know what they want, but there are also such persons who want to understand the reason of their complicated situation and ways to start full-fledged lives again. Self-help club was created only by means of and for the sake of such people.”

Club meeting was organized in two stages, where the first one was dedicated to explanation of “Self-destructive behavior” and the second – to confession of Elina who addressed Caritas Kyiv for help over a year ago.

Discussion about self-destructive behavior is necessary for everyone who found themselves in dead end and doesn’t see any exit or ways to move forward. Moreover, meaning and types of self-destructive behavior that helps us to overcome traumatic situations were also on the discussion agenda.

“Self-destructive behavior means positive and negative actions, doings, thoughts or feelings that guide us. In our turn we don’t even understand that despair and hopelessness seized us in their mighty captivity. And the worst is that we don’t have someone to complain about the situation, because we lose trust even to ourselves. That’s why self-help club is aimed to restore trust, master own feelings and find supportive relationships,” convinces psychologist of local Caritas Alina during the meeting.

The second part of Caritas clients’ meeting was full of sincerity and important experience that was presented by Elina. As the majority of our women recently she hid behind the status of low-income person and having many children that led to loss of hope for a happy future. Helplessness and despair captured her and didn’t let her move forward. At the moment Elina is a beautiful mother of four children, housewife, attractive woman and volunteer of Caritas Kyiv.

Young woman acknowledged that neither complicated living circumstances nor different social statuses are obstacles to be a real woman, model mother and example for other Caritas Kyiv clients. Elina shared with participants of the meeting her experience and spoke about difficult, however, the most important work in life that leads to solving of many problems and understanding of own usefulness.

“Support is significant for each of us, because the problem lays not in the reason why people found themselves in dead end of daily routine problems, but in absence of movement out of the existing situation. Our task in Caritas not to render material benefits or social services, but particularly in backing up their steps while moving out of complicated circumstances,” underlines psychologist Alina.