During the “Meaningful meetings” on  “Hippotherapy for children: horses as helpers on the way to health”, we visited the Hippotherapy Center “Berehynia Polissya” together with families who left their homes because of the war and moved to Zhytomyr.

Olga Mankovska, the head of the PO “Berehynya Polissya” held a quiz for children. Girls and boys answered questions and received sweets as a reward.

The event participants learned new things about horses – what they eat, how long they live on average, their weaknesses, how they help people relieve stress and treat diseases. Besides,Ms. Olha told us about the unique methods of their Center, which has been engaged in hippotherapy for 15 years, about individual programs for each child and the opportunity to horse ride for anyone, whether children or adults.

At first, the children approached the horses with hesitation and fear, afraid to touch them. But every minute they became more and more courageous, relaxed, holding out apples in palms of their hands to feed the horses, smiling when they petted them and the fluffy cats that also live here.

Some of the kids have never ridden a horse before. And Sofia from Zaporizhzhia region said that before the  war she used to ride horses every year. So both the girl and her mother Tatiana were very happy that our event let them learn about this opportunity in Zhytomyr.

The  “Integration program for war victims” project is implemented by the Zhytomyr Community Fund within the grant competition “Ukraine crises” with the support of the Global Fund for Community Foundations.