{"id":1252828,"date":"2025-06-27T14:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T11:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-war-left-a-mark-but-did-not-break-mountain-seed-foundation-helps-families-of-heroes-find-the-strength-to-live-on\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T14:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T11:56:07","slug":"the-war-left-a-mark-but-did-not-break-mountain-seed-foundation-helps-families-of-heroes-find-the-strength-to-live-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-war-left-a-mark-but-did-not-break-mountain-seed-foundation-helps-families-of-heroes-find-the-strength-to-live-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The war left a mark, but did not break: Mountain Seed Foundation helps families of heroes find the strength to live on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A unique rehabilitation camp for psychological support of Ukrainian military personnel and their families continues to operate in Transcarpathia. It was initiated by the American charity Mountain Seed Foundation with the participation of US Army veterans who have personal experience in overcoming mental and physical trauma.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> ICTV TV channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4gsbCXObOTQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tells<\/a> about this in its story.<\/p>\n<p> Earlier this year, the Mountain Seed Foundation, with support from the American Buffett Foundation, installed Via Ferrata climbing routes, which became a key element of the project.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We strive not only to provide an opportunity to relax, but also to teach people who have survived the traumatic experience of war to find meaning and joy in life again. Through rock climbing and shared family experiences, we help restore mutual understanding in the family, overcome fears, and discover the strength within ourselves \u2014 the strength that allows us to conquer not only peaks, but also our own internal obstacles,&#8221; says Iryna Prykhodko, program director and co-founder of the Mountain Seed Foundation. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4gsbCXObOTQ?si=hHabjqNSb-WifDPK\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"> <span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The camp operates near the city of Vynohradiv, on Chorna Hora. It is here that special climbing routes of varying difficulty are equipped. The program is designed for monthly two-week trips and will last until May 2026.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;This is a camp for the whole family, because one of the components of healing is the family, who really helps and is always there,&#8221; the project organizers note.<\/p>\n<p> During the visit, which was shown by ICTV journalists, the camp was visited by 13 families of the fallen defenders, including widows and children from Zaporizhzhia region. A camp for families from Sumy region is currently underway, followed by families from Kyiv in July.<\/p>\n<p> Among the participants was Oksana from the Melitopol district, who lost her husband after two years of his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The woman and her daughter tried rock climbing for the first time:<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;There is some possibility &#8211; we cling to somehow pull ourselves together emotionally. To support ourselves and the child, of course,&#8221; she shared.<\/p>\n<p> But Victoria, whose husband died 9 months ago, says that climbing helped her feel inner strength: &#8220;It&#8217;s cool, it gives you the feeling that you can do anything. If you conquer mountains, then you can overcome other obstacles in life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> The program includes not only physical activity, but also psycho-emotional practices &#8211; classes with psychologists, art therapy, breathing techniques. Participants learn to overcome fear, overcome traumatic states, and make plans for the future.<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We are trying to help women. In those conditions, in this stress, we show them how they can support themselves with the help of nature,&#8221; explain the psychologists involved in the project.<\/p>\n<p> This charity project has already been implemented in Slovenia and Austria, but it will operate in Ukraine for the longest time \u2014 almost a year. The support program is also available for veterans, prisoners of war, and families of missing persons. Participation in the camp is free.<\/p>\n<p> <em>Reference<\/em><\/p>\n<p> Mountain Seed Foundation (MSF) is a non-profit charitable organization headquartered in Idaho (USA), founded in 2021. Its main mission is to provide psychological support to Ukrainian families affected by the war through a combination of art therapy, nature therapy, and physical activity, including rock climbing.<\/p>\n<p> The foundation is known for:<\/p>\n<ul><\/p>\n<li> Rehabilitation camps in the Austrian Alps, where psychological support sessions are held, developed by a Yale University professor.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> The documentary &#8220;Camp Courage&#8221; from a National Geographic director (available on Netflix), which tells the story of a girl named Milana from Mariupol.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> A story on CBS &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; (during the second camp, world-renowned journalist Scott Pelley and the &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; team visited the camp and filmed a report on MSF&#8217;s activities in Austria).<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> Mini Base Camp programs in Lviv, Cherkasy, and Kyiv \u2014 climbing lessons and psychological support for military children and women.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> Holding camps for families of veterans, fallen servicemen, as well as refugee families in the Austrian Alps (Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the cities of Mykolaiv and Kyiv, and from other regions of Ukraine).<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> Humanitarian activities: evacuation of families from dangerous regions of Ukraine, provision of military generators, international media presence ( <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2Ebp-XzpAbU?si=4THIP5bF5dHxbz-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CBS<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QSa1NrZ09QM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Voice of America<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/gallery\/mountain-seed-foundation-ukraine-war\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Outside Magazine<\/a> ).<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p> The foundation unites the efforts of American veterans and international professionals to rebuild Ukrainian families affected by the war.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Twitter<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-vpb-inserted=\" er324z.s6\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A unique rehabilitation camp for psychological support of Ukrainian military personnel and their families continues to operate in Transcarpathia. It was initiated by the American charity Mountain Seed Foundation with the participation of US Army veterans who have personal experience in overcoming mental and physical trauma. ICTV TV channel tells about this in its story. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":1252823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76875,76878],"class_list":["post-1252828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1252823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}