The Bucha community runs a Centre for Comprehensive Child Development and Support — an institution that many of the families who could use it have never heard of. All of its services are free.

This was announced in a statement by the Bucha City Council.

The centre has rooms for physical rehabilitation and sensory therapy, a self-care room and an inclusive outdoor playground. The range of services is wider than one might expect: day care for children with disabilities, early intervention for children from birth to four years, psychologist consultations, teenage groups on psychosomatics and social support for families.

Early intervention deserves particular attention. It is a service for parents who have noticed that their baby is not holding their head up, not babbling, not responding the way peers do — and do not know whether the child will “grow out of it.” International practice is unambiguous: the earlier work with such a child begins, the better the outcome, and the window of greatest brain plasticity closes at around the third year of life. A months-long waiting list for a private specialist is expensive in something other than money.

The teenage psychosomatics groups are no accident either. Children who lived through occupation and displacement often express trauma not in words but through the body: headaches, stomach pains and insomnia for which a paediatrician can find no cause.

All services are funded under projects of Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy and UNICEF. Olena Renchka, director of the Bucha Centre for Social Services and Psychological Assistance, described the institution’s work.

How to apply. Submit an application through the Department of Social Policy of the Bucha City Council at 5/5a Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Boulevard, Bucha. The enquiries line is (04597) 4-99-06.