Triumf Health was awarded financing through The Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) for a new project to support the mental health of children in Ukraine
The project started in mid March and will run through the end of 2024. Within this timeframe, Triumf Health and the Ukrainian partner Me and My School, a governmentally recognized organisation centred on education innovation, will focus on two main activities. First, the creation of a virtual, 25-part training series on children’s mental health (in Ukrainian) for teachers and parents. Secondly, the focus will be on the implementation of the Triumfland Saga mobile game for 7- to 12-year-old Ukrainian students.
According to UNESCO, 26% of Ukrainian teenagers have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 75% of schoolchildren have experienced stress. 54% of Ukrainian teachers are professionally "burned out". These grim statistics showcase the necessity of implementing tools to benefit the mental health of all parties in the Ukrainian education system. The project partner, Me and My School was chosen as it brings together students, parents and educational experts in Kiev and the formerly occupied territories. This allows the project to reach the schools which would most benefit from increased support for children’s mental wellbeing.
The project will include webinars in Ukrainian to introduce the 25-part series to teachers and train them on the use of the game for their students. Later on, questionnaires and focus groups with the same teachers will help to determine which steps can be taken to further increase satisfaction with the user experience. By the end of the year, the aim is to directly benefit 300 teachers and 3000 students in 60 institutions. So far, it looks like these expectations might have been too conservative but it is too early to draw any conclusions. One thing is clear, the goal is to help kids feel happier and healthier, and support teachers in getting them there.
In the 2024 application round, ESTDEV financed 20 development projects with a combined total of nearly four million euros. The project run by Triumf Health was awarded 116,790 euros. This application round was aimed at developing democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine by employing Estonian best practices.