Flanders provides funds for new mental health unit in Ukraine
The government of Flanders is giving 1.5 million euros to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine to build a mental health support unit. It will provide psychological and psychosocial help to former prisoners of war and people who have faced torture or other violent treatment under the Russian occupation.
The unit is an extension of a physical and psychological rehabilitation centre called Unbroken that was established in 2023. It should be ready for use in early 2025 and will have 40 hospital beds, with the capacity to treat up to 1,000 people a year.
“Unbroken is a unique place where adults and children affected by war can receive medical care," said Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi. “We manufacture our own prostheses for victims of war, and we provide psychological help to wounded and traumatised soldiers and civilians.”
A symbolic cheque was presented to a delegation from Lviv on a working visit to Mechelen on Friday, ahead of the opening concert of the Lunalia festival.
“Early last year, I was in Lviv to accompany an aid convoy with Red Cross Flanders,” Flemish minister president Jan Jambon said. “I could see how crucial humanitarian aid is for a people in terrible war conditions. Flanders itself has also been through dark times of war. Fortunately, there were people then who helped us survive.”
#FlandersNewsService | Grandmaster Alexander Beliavsky plays chess with patients at the Unbroken rehabilitation centre in Lviv, western Ukraine, February 2024 © PHOTO ANASTASIIA SMOLIENKO/AVALON
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