About twenty doctors from a traveling medical team who came to visit children in a Ukrainian village jump from a bus, parked next to a brick-walled primary school.

Executing a well-practiced choreography, led by caregiver Olga Medvedeva, they set up their equipment in Myrné’s school while singer Sofia Yegorova entertains the young patients.

Accessing specialized medical care is a challenge in Ukraine, where the already strained health system was brought to its knees by the Russian invasion.

Children also bear the stigma. The constant anxiety has disastrous consequences on their mental and physical health, further aggravated by the lack of medical care, explains the team at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in kyiv.

While traveling the region, “we realized that we were seeing the same thing everywhere,” Olga Medvedeva, 63, director of a pediatrics department, told AFP.

“Most often these are eating or psycho-emotional disorders, which together cause a series of other illnesses,” she explains. “It’s like a detonator.”

His brigade hit the road in May 2022, shortly after Ukrainian forces dislodged Russian troops from the area.

Since then, it has carried out more than 60 missions, both in areas formerly occupied by the Russians and others relatively untouched, such as Myrne, some 40 kilometers southeast of the capital.

– “Anxious” ?

In the region, getting an appointment with a specialist doctor is very complicated, say parents interviewed by AFP.

Another effect of the war: there is a shortage of doctors and the number of patients is exploding, due to the influx of refugees from areas more exposed to fighting.

And some of the families seeking treatment in kyiv are discouraged by the missile threat.

In Myrné, during the team’s visit, many parents wait patiently, one behind the other, leaning against the peach-colored walls.

In the meantime, their children play hopscotch or color pictures.

Among the adults, Lioudmila Lokha, 46, who came with her 7-year-old son, Timofeï.

The boy stopped eating when the family fled to Portugal at the start of the invasion.

“When he is worried, he has trouble eating,” says Lioudmila Lokha.

Faced with this problem, his family had to find solutions. As soon as this happens, Timofeï’s older brother is called to the rescue by video: “he adores him and he motivates him”, explains his mother, adding that sister and father also contribute.

Timofeï is far from being the only one. A school nurse, Inna Tachevska, notes that schoolchildren, just like her own children, are “anxious.”

They suffer from “stomach aches, headaches or panic attacks,” she regrets.

Olga Soudak, a 29-year-old psychologist, explains that caregivers work mainly with families.

“When the family is calm, children feel much better and will recover more quickly.”

She also recommends that parents answer children’s questions about the war.

But hearing her grandfather Serguiï Vida talk about the invasion, 8-year-old Milana snuggled her head against his chest.

“War is death, mutilation, destruction,” declares bluntly the man who fought during the first year of the conflict before being demobilized.

Milana, clutching her pink clutch, says she feels “a mixture of anger and joy”.

“It’s good that everything is going well for us, and not good that there is war, right?” asks Serguiï Vida, taking the little girl in his arms.

Milana acquiesces.

Despite the trauma, Olga Medvedeva believes the children will recover from the “enormous stress” of the war.

“But we have to show them that everything will be fine,” she warns.

And with the prospect of a long war, Ukrainian doctors have a daunting task ahead of them.

“As long as the war continues, we will see all these problems,” she assures. “Until the sirens no longer sound, transport operates normally, people are calmed.”

09/26/2023 17:08:51 –         Myrne (Ukraine) (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP