It was Senior Lecturer Lars Harrysson at School of Social Work that together with Dean Oksana Chernysh of Pedagogical Technologies and Lifelong Learning Faculty, Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University in Ukraine, came up with the idea of their students working together in a project. 

Anastasiia Melnyk and Lisa Pryshchepa did interviews in Ukraine, to help the two Swedish students with their bachelor thesis about social work with refugee children with war trauma.

- This topic is not our main topic, but it is an interesting area. It was a new experience, we had to read a lot and we learned a lot, says Anastasiia.

They weren't able to visit Helsingborg, instead they had regular meetings with the Swedish students and their Ukrainian and Swedish supervisors on Zoom.

- The Corona made us all used to Zoom, so it was never a problem, and the meetings were inspiring. It's always nice to meet new people and work together, Lisa says.

Examination in each country

Anastasiia wrote an article titled "Providing social services for traumatized children during the war: Experience of Ukraine and Sweden" and Lisas article is on "Institutional provision of child welfare in Ukraine and Sweden: Challenges of war and provision of child support services". They will both be published in Ukrainian Research Journals. For the Swedish students, the outcome of the project was their bachelor thesis. They will all be examined in their home countries.

- Lars (Harrysson) and the students were very open to us. It was great to work with them and we had a good connection. They helped us into the topic, and we also had a cultural exchange, Lisa says and adds: Thank you!