Ukraine's war is many things. What is it to children who have lost a parent?
I asked our Opinion Video department to find a way to explore the world of Ukrainian children affected by the war. They produced the short film we're publishing today in both English and Ukrainian, "What Is War to a Grieving Child?" I think of it as a chorus of guest essays by a generation of pained Ukrainian children. |
The film came together after Lucy King, a senior journalist on the Opinion Video team, found a "grief camp" in the mountains of western Ukraine, where for two weeks about 50 kids who had lost their fathers to the war were scheduled to gather and confront their trauma. Their fathers were not professional soldiers but rather mechanics and delivery drivers who had volunteered for the war. Most of the kids had never attended therapy, and this would be the first chance many of them would get to talk about their dads and their pain. |
 | | Jonah M. Kessel/The New York Times |
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I quickly dispatched two producers with experience working in conflict zones: Mona El-Naggar, a former Times correspondent who has reported in Yemen and Gaza and also covered the Arab Spring, and Jonah Kessel, the deputy director of Opinion Video, who has reported on ethnic unrest in Myanmar and China. |
Reporting on children can be very delicate, even more so among a highly traumatized population during wartime. But I knew Mona and Jonah — both as parents and as experienced reporters — would bring the necessary sensitivity to the assignment. Mindful of the risk of "retraumatizing" the children, they worked closely with the camp's therapists to select which participants to interview. |
Alexander Stockton then edited the film, which is built around us asking the kids a simple question: What is war? Their answers were powerful. |
The film also provided a window into the accumulated losses of war. The children had lost their fathers, but they had also lost their pets, schools, homes, sports, and basic teenage pastimes, like partying and dating. One teenager, Vlad, offered a particularly blunt summary: "War is a waste of everything." I was crushed to hear him describe the thing he missed most: the sound of his dad stirring sugar into his morning tea. |
But there were moments of hope, too. The camp offered not only space for these children to grieve but also space for them to just be kids again. That's important because while the debate surrounding how to support Ukraine largely centers on military aid and training, the country will also need to set up places and programs like this one that allow for emotional healing. |
The organization behind the camp, Children of Heroes Charity Fund, supports children of fallen Ukrainian soldiers until they reach young adulthood. The assistance includes psychological, legal, education and housing support, as well as career advice. Sadly, 20 children join their network each day. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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