Last Saturday and Sunday (27 - 28 July 2024) a psychological training seminar was held at the ASB Hamburg office.

The seminar was attended by thirteen Ukrainian women who were forced to leave their homes in Vinnitsa, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Kherson regions, Mariupol and Kiev after the beginning of the full-scale Russian military aggression and ended up in Germany.  

The project ‘Psychological Assistance to Victims of War in Ukraine’ is implemented by Russian political emigrants Alexander and Galina Goncharenko with the participation of Ukrainian psychologists Alla Danilich-Skakun and Natalia Stepanenko.

The participants of the seminar are women with difficult life fate, with difficulties in adapting to new life realities and with different degrees of severity of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Despite all the difficulties, the professionalism of the psychologist (Natalia Stepanenko), the experience and desire to help of the project organisers, Ukrainian national cuisine, forest air and wonderful weather helped the women to overcome psychological problems.

By tradition, at the end of the seminar the participants and members of the project team summarised the results of the two-day work, exchanged their impressions and wishes.

Project manager Alexander Goncharenko shared the results and plans of the project.

Fifty-three refugee women from Ukraine received psychological assistance during five training seminars, and two more training seminars are planned for this year (September, November).

Alexander and Galina Goncharenko thanked Martina Baeurle, Managing Director of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted Persons , for her help in implementing the project, and Günter Arndt, Head of ASB Hamburg , for his hospitality and financial support of the seminar.

Photo 1.  Group photo of the fifth seminar-training;

Photo 2. Alexander Goncharenko opens the seminar;

Photo 3. The ASB garden is cosy and warm;

Photo 4. The Buddha statue became a kind of good talisman for the participants of the seminars;

Photo 5. Training is training, but lunch is on schedule;

Photo 6. Practising psychological exercises in the fresh air;

Photo 7. Collective photo in the ASB library.

Last Thursday evening (20 June), Russian human rights activists Alexander and Galina Goncharenko met with local civil society activists at the Literature Café of the Gymnasiums Christianeum of Hamburg.

The evening was led by Mr Björn Maydell, head of the Literature Café.

Executive Director Martina Baeurle made an introductory speech and showed a film about the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted Persons .

Then Alexander and Galina told about their many years of human rights and opposition activities in Russia, about the reasons for their emigration to Kazakhstan and then to Germany.

In Russia, Alexander Goncharenko was arrested in absentia and put on an interstate wanted list for "discrediting" the Russian army .

From September 2022 to August 2023, they were guests of the Hamburg Foundation for Assistance to Politically Persecuted Persons.

In exile, Alexander and Galina participate in the activities of the Russian-speaking community Anti-War Hamburg.

In addition, with the support of Martina Baeurle, they are implementing their project: "Psychological assistance to victims of war in Ukraine".

Project leader Alexander Goncharenko said that forty women war refugees from Ukraine received psychological help during four training seminars, that the project is not limited to seminars only, and for further communication there is a WhatsApp group "Psychological help to victims of war in Ukraine".

He said that in 2024 there will still be psychological training seminars in July, September and November. For participation in the seminars, 83 female participants applied.

Alexander and Galina answered many questions of those present.

At the end of the event, Alexander Goncharenko thanked all those present for their active civic position, for the friendly atmosphere of the meeting, for the warmth of heart, for not indifferent to the fate of Russian political emigrants and Ukrainian refugees.

The donations collected during the charity evening will be used to help Ukrainian refugees.

Photo 1. Galina and Alexander Goncharenko at one of the anti-war actions in Hamburg;

Photo 2. Martina Baeurle;

Photo 3. Bjorn Maydell and Alexander Goncharenko (from left to right).

Photo 4. Galina Goncharenko, far right