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UNHIDE UKRAINE

The Unhide Project (2016 - PRESENT)

BE INVISIBLE. FOR MANY THIS IS NOT A DREAM.
BUT A BITTER REALITY.

With UNHIDE, we provide children and adolescents a place where they can find peace and discover their potential and strengths. UNHIDE gives them a voice and a platform to express themselves and their dreams creatively. It allows them to make their hopes and needs visible. Art and music therapy help children and adolescents access their subconscious, for example, through painting and the choice of specific colors. This makes their trauma visible and can be overcome.

Through the UNHIDE project, we are dedicated to children and adolescents who are unseen and ignored by society. They have experienced many traumatic events in the past, such as the loss of a loved one or the displacement from their homes and familiar surroundings. These children and adolescents live in constant fear and uncertainty about what the future holds for them.

Ukraine
Western & Central Ukraine

Ukraine
Lutsk & Kyiv

In March and September 2022, we returned to Ukraine. At regular intervals, we delivered humanitarian aid to Ukraine and assisted in the evacuation of people to Germany. Upon arriving in Germany, the children, women, and families, and rarely men, were provided accommodation. For the displaced children and adolescents, UNHIDE UKRAINE offered in Germany what was planned for their homeland in Ukraine – a safe place where they can play, learn, and recuperate temporarily.

A place to discover and showcase talents.

With our project partner ARTHELPS and local partners, we will establish a UNHIDE HUB in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine – a safe space for children and youth, a space that provides them with the security and freedom to explore new perspectives. The UNHIDE HUB will be a place for leisure, growth, communication, and regeneration. Children and youth will receive music and creativity lessons, as well as therapy sessions here.

We will create the necessary infrastructure, equip spaces, hire and train our staff. Ultimately, inviting children and youth to our UNHIDE HUB. It will be an exciting time!

Ukraine
Eastern Ukraine

Ukraine
Avdiivka

Since 2018, we have been active in Eastern Ukraine. In the frontline city of Avdiivka, near Donetsk, we encountered a somber scene. Every day, the people here live in fear for their existence and their lives. In this city, we joined forces with ARTHELPS, HelpingHands, and children and adolescents – and transformed this place with creativity, vibrant colors, and lots of imagination!

As early as 2018, we could hear loud bombs and gunfire at night. Many of these children had grown up in this war-ravaged environment in recent years. They knew nothing else and didn’t even have a pillow at night. So, we had one goal: We create the most beautiful pillows in the world with the children.

School building to creative center

In the summer of 2021, we visited the Ukrainian frontline city of Avdiivka for the second time. We took the rooms of a vacant former school building. We transformed this place into a creative center, a place of freedom where everyone can unfold, discover the beauty within themselves, and create positive experiences.

When is a girl a hero? What makes a boy a hero? Who are ‘they’? They are children, girls and boys living in war-torn Eastern Ukraine, where everyday life looks entirely different than it does for us. Through a local partner organization, we had the privilege of getting to know some of them and invited them to our workshop.

The heroines and heroes stage themselves and their art objects: armed with digital cameras, they wander through their environment, photograph and film themselves at various locations that hold meaning for them. The images reveal what’s inside them: real HEROES.

Due to the current situation in Ukraine, we have left our premises. Through the UNHIDE UKRAINE project, we are providing immediate assistance in Ukraine and helping those who have left Ukraine to build a secure future.

Jordan
Amman

Jordan
Amman

MAKING HOPE VISIBLE TO THE WORLD.

UNHIDE embodies the essence of our values, showing who we are. We believe in the creative potential that resides within each individual and the connections it forges. In collaboration with ARTHELPS, we bring to light what is often hidden.

This means that if you simply try, open your mind and heart to it, you will discover that you are an artist in your own unique way.

In 2019, we were in Amman, the capital of Jordan, where we set up a transparent structure in the middle of the street and handed passing children and adolescents a pen with the task of drawing the person in front of them. “I’m not creative.” “This is for kids.” – common thoughts that turned out to be wrong, stereotypes that were shattered. In the midst of this experiment, souls found their freedom, and we, ourselves, found inspiration.

Iraq
Mosul

Iraq
Mosul

CREATIVITY MEANS FREEDOM.

The freedom to momentarily escape daily life, to explore and immerse oneself in other worlds. The freedom to be a child, to dream, far from violence, fear, and hopelessness.

SAVING AN ANGEL and ARTHELPS first joined forces in 2016 in an Iraqi refugee camp.

8430 children, 3000 tents, one goal: UNHIDE.

They live tent by tent, hut by hut, and hope for an end to the violence:

In a camp near the Iraqi city of Mosul, thousands of people reside. They have all left their homes to shield themselves from weapons and hatred. In this vast refugee shelter, the longing for safety, security, and carefree days grows, especially among the youngest.

After one year, we revisited the massive refugee shelter in Northern Iraq for the second time. In several workshops conducted, there was drawing, painting, and laughter. There were hardly any restrictions – children and adolescents could unfold themselves freely and creatively, strengthen their self-confidence, momentarily escape the daily life amidst war, hatred, and destruction, and express what’s on their hearts with colors and shapes.

The goal of the workshop was to bring color to the dreary everyday life of the Iraqi camp. Tents were creatively and imaginatively painted, giving them life and transforming a pale refugee shelter into a vibrant, joyful tent city. The result reflects the strength, courage, and joy of life of the camp residents.

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