DTCare’s work in Ukraine has focused on empowerment and uplifting its citizens since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Now it’s expanding its efforts in two areas as that war continues: a scholarship program to help 14 veterans earn master’s degrees in prosthetics and supporting women veterans, too, through its Hero’s Compass program.
The Moon-based nonprofit’s program manager, Courtney Robson, said the two-year prosthetics program will be based at Ternopil National Medical University and supported by PENTA Prosthetics. Fourteen veterans will have a fully funded pathway to earn a master’s degree in the field, including not only tuition but also free housing, specialized training with international experts, access to free legal support and an invitation to participate in a Hero’s Compass retreat.
The need for prosthetics professionals has grown, with an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 individuals facing amputations from war injuries, according to the April DTCare newsletter.
Robson said this has been her idea and main project. Only four Ukrainian medical schools offer prosthetics classes, and because of that, most interested students had to study and learn about the field outside of the country. Ternopil is one of just four Ukrainian medical schools that offers such classes. Its current cohort has just eight students, she found out during a visit to the hospital on another partnership effort.
So starting this program could help not only those patients but also veterans who need employment. For a number of reasons, she said, they don’t want to or can’t go back to their prior jobs.
The need for prosthetists will continue to grow. “Ukraine is the biggest minefield in the world right now,” Robson said, “and [veterans and citizens] will continue to have amputations and injuries.” Added to this is the fact that prosthetics need to be changed as people age, gain weight or grow. Plus most facilities that provide them are in larger cities. It’s difficult for people in smaller cities or rural areas to have access to them.
Right now the Ternopil/DTCare program has eight applicants, and official acceptances will be sent at the end of May. They will have to relocate to Ternopil, which is in the country’s western area, to start studies this fall. DTCare will help them resettle, she said.
The first veterans women’s session this year included 12 participants, according to Robson. The eight-day adventure-based retreat in the Carpathian Mountains aimed to lead them to healing and successful reintegration into civilian life, including art therapy and learning from a veteran mentor as well as rigorous outdoor activities.
The addition to the retreat sessions, which began for men in 2023, came to fruition with assistance of a new partner, VETERANKA, a nearly 7-year-old advocacy organization and foundation.
The nonprofit’s work with veterans resulted in three sessions with 25 male veterans last year. One of Robson’s main goals for Hero’s Compass had been at least one session specifically for women. Roadblocks and barriers delayed that.
“[Women veterans] can be easier to look past,” she explained. “Sometimes they do not get the support they need. We just weren’t able to get that many female veterans that applied. We didn’t get that population.”
Dimitry Terpylo, who serves as the nonprofit’s program manager in Ukraine, told her he would figure it out and did with VETERANKA’s help in spreading information to its membership and beyond. Another women’s session is planned for later this year.
Robson said Terpylo wanted this first retreat to be separate because the female veterans’ experience differs from the men’s.
Estimates of the number of women in the Ukrainian military vary, and Daria Fugalevych, who served as a facilitator and veteran mentor in the first women’s retreat, said it is about 70,000. The women are part of the country’s infantry, serving in drone and medical combat units for example. Terpylo said by the last analysis he knows of stated that about 1.2 million men are fighting the war.
Fugalevych started in her country’s army as a soldier, then became a trainer for psychological support and helped provide social and medical connections for veterans and their families. She also investigated cases of missing or wounded veterans. Prior to her two years of military service she was an editor for a scientific journal and an English teacher.
She noted that there are only a few reasons that soldiers can leave Ukraine’s military as the war continues. Terpylo said his country’s biggest challenge right now is replacing soldiers on the front lines.
He joined DTCare after the retreats began last year because he liked the Hero’s Compass structure – the time spent in retreat followed by 10 weeks on online support to continue working with veterans. Preparation for the retreats – based on a U.S. T-4 model of Trust, Try, Transform, Transition – started three years ago.
Terpylo said the program’s structure and foundation work. The work has adjusted to the needs of veterans, too, moving from the initial lodge to three others that are accessible to soldiers with disabilities. The next four sessions will be held in one that also has a sanitarium and other amenities as well as hiking, rock climbing and other more challenging physical activities. Eight sessions will be held in the mountains, he said.
Fugalevych has worked with both women’s and men’s groups, and she sees differences. The women, she said are more open to the art therapy in the retreats and participate more willingly in yoga and music therapies. They shared their personal war stories more readily, too.
“Debriefing was in all the sessions starting from the morning to evening,” she explained. “Our culture, it forbids men to cry, to express, to say they need help and say they have problems. They try to do it by themselves, and they have societal scenarios and don’t know how to change. It’s difficult for art therapy to involve them. We need time to explain to them it is also help for them …. They are afraid of it, that art shows that they have something to share. … it is a difficult thing for them.”
Terpylo explains it as “Women are more open speaking. Men are more open listening.”
No one is forced to take part in any of the activities, he added. But most will try them, at least, once trust is built.
“We build the community and trust. We’re building on that,” the program manager said. “We do not need to force that on themselves. Everyone is open to be challenged. This challenge by choice gave participants the opportunity to outside of their comfort zone to stress zone. The more they do this, the more resilient they become. Like liquid material.”
The program is moving forward and growing because of partner organizations such as VETERANKA, he said, including others participating in the online sessions. Sharing resources for medical assistance, continued counseling, job searches and more helps veterans reintegrate.
Hero’s Compass will hold 100 veteran sessions as soon as possible, Terpylo said. To ensure it works, each retreat will be limited to 15 participants. This year it has held five sessions and has plans for 10 more, possibly with one mixing male and female veterans.
DTCare continues its humanitarian shipments to Ukraine and Lebanon, too. Just after Easter it sent its latest shipment containing medical items to art and school supplies to diapers and other children’s products families and orphanages need. Toys and bicycles became an important part of that shipment, Robson said. The toys came from Play It Forward Pittsburgh and the bicycles from Communicycle, a Beaver County-based nonprofit.
“When we give a whole square pallet of toys for the kids, it just lights them up,” she said. “You can just feel how excited those kids are when our team shows up with 20 bicycles. They haven’t been able to ride because their bicycles get so torn up.”
Robson’s next dream is to start a veterans’ pet therapy program, something that could work because Ukrainian shelters have been overrun with pets.
She traveled to Ukraine in February and will go back in June to check on projects and partnerships. Wherever she visits, whatever partners she works with, the gratitude is just overwhelming.
“Just like people in our Pittsburgh area want to donate and support [Ukrainians], the gratification in Ukraine matches that,” Robson said. “ … It means so much.”
DTCare expects to send at least five humanitarian shipments to Ukraine and Lebanon this year. Based on recent in-country assessments, the most needed items include hygiene supplies, arts and crafts supplies for therapy sessions, adaptive sports equipment such as golf clubs and balls, children’s toys and school supplies, adult and child diapers, and medical and mobility supplies such as walkers and canes.
It also needs volunteers. Volunteer event details will be shared soon on its website: https://www.dtcare.org/.
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Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.