Recovery Space HART

Putting Community Back into Rehabilitative Care

HART is a rehabilitation center founded in 2024 and located in the south-central city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. The facility is an expansive three-story building capable of providing personal treatment programs to 50 patients a day.

But more than a place, it is people: founded by the uniquely grassroots and visionary NGO “Union of Responsible Citizens”, run by a team of qualified medical professionals, and serving the multifaceted needs of Ukrainians who for four years and counting have sacrificed everything to save their country from Russia’s full-scale invasion.

HART (in Ukrainian “ГАРТ”) is an old Ukrainian word meaning “tempering” or “hardening”— the process of gaining strength and resilience through hardship, like steel forged in fire. 

Supporting Survivors of War

Recovery Space HART is an independent community-driven initiative that serves:

  • Civilians directly affected by the war

  • Veterans and their families and

  • Surviving spouses of the fallen and their families

Through a Comprehensive Model of Recovery

including professional and evidence-based rehabilitation in three key areas:

  • Physical

  • Psychological

  • Socio-Cultural

  • Physical Rehabilitation

    HART’s Physical Therapy Team

    (left to right) Andriy Bondarenko - Masseuse, Daryna Potapova- Head of Hart’s Physical Rehabilitation Services , Natalia Shishkina - Nurse, and Anastasia Tymoshuk - Physical Therapist

  • Physical Rehabilitation

    Artem was wounded in active duty. Here he receives his first session of physical therapy after receiving his prosthesis.

  • Psychological Rehabilitation

    Yevhenia Zhuravel (R) runs HART’s psychological rehabilitation program. Here she speaks with a veteran during a public HART event.

  • Socio-Cultural Rehabilitation

    Rehabilitation is more than physical therapy sessions— it’s about making sure a veteran feels remembered and included. Oleksandr, a wounded prisoner of war, lost all use of his left hand. HART has not only helped return some function to his hand; it’s given him a (literal) stage to pursue his dreams. Originally a guitarist, he now has switched to drums.

  • Socio-Cultural Rehabilitation

    The belief at HART is that rehabilitation can’t be separate and isolated from community life— it must be integrated within it. For this reason, HART is not just a rehabilitation center, it’s an active and vibrant cultural and arts center at the very center of community life.

  • Socio-Cultural Rehabilitation

    HART works to create a healthy and strong local veterans community that is responsive and inclusive to the needs of the entire family.

What are we fundraising for?

HART currently operates in a temporary location while they complete renovations on the main building (we call this stage “Pre-Hart”).

With seventy percent of the renovation complete, HART is so close to opening the doors of its main facility!

We’re fundraising to complete the final stage:

a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system for the entire three-story 1800m² premise.

Out of the $165,000 needed

We want to Raise $70,000!

Why?

“We revitalize the building to revitalize people.

The sooner we prepare the facility – and, most importantly, the team – the more effectively we serve returning veterans and will be ready for the mass return of those now serving on the front.”

— Juliy Morozov, Co-Founder of HART

HART: Helping Heroes Re-Integrate into their Homes and Communities

Oleksandr Zheludenko and his wife, Valeria.

Oleksandr was wounded by a landmine during active duty and lost his leg.

Oleksandr received two sessions of therapy, one in preparation for his prosthetics and the second to learn how to walk with his prosthetic leg.

Oleksandr has not only received free medical treatment at HART, he has found a community, and even employment. Oleksandr, a builder prior to his military service, now oversees all HART renovations.

Ukraine’s 25 million people all bear the scars, some visible and some invisible, of four years of war.

In addition to the needs of civilians, returning soldiers require specific attention.

Ukraine currently has nearly 1 million active duty soldiers. At some point these soldiers will turn into 1 million veterans who will require significant support “revitalizing”— physically, psychologically, and socially— from the effects of war.

In the coming years, the Kryvyi Rih region alone expects to have up to 50,000 veterans.

Communities must be prepared to receive, revitalize, and re-integrate these veterans back into society.

“Here you see Tymofiy (known by his call sign “Lucky”) chipping away at a wall of HART. He does this not for the sake of a cool video but because he understands the importance of everything we are doing.

Lucky is 23, not much older than many of the kids who volunteered that day to prepare HART for renovations, but he has already spent over a year fighting on the frontline with the Azov battalion.

He served after already losing his father and his brother in the war. As you can see, he lost a part of himself too. But that doesn't stop him from living his life.

I have serious reasons to believe that you will hear a lot more about Laki from me. And not only from me.”

- Juliy Morozov, Co-Founder of HART

Creating Heart at HART: The Renovation Progress!

About our Partner:

NGO “Union of Responsible Citizens”

Union of Responsible Citizens (UoRC) is a respected NGO based in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrraine, whose leadership team has 20+ year experience in the public sector serving their community. Launched in 2014 as a union of citizens, businessmen, and journalists; they proactively take responsibility for their city by developing local civil society, pursuing reform, and attracting international expertise in the creation of community initiatives.

To list just a few of their accomplishments over the past twelve years:

  • In just seven months at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, UoRC together with partners, turned an abandoned building into a fully functioning center for internally displaced people fleeing war zones. At peak waves of internal migration, the center served over 350 individuals a day, housed up to 30 families, and provided food, clothing, health services, schooling, and career assistance. The center served over 60,000 internally displaced individuals.

  • Organized the evacuation of 683 people with disabilities and 364 family members from active war zone.

  • Distributed more than 500 tons of humanitarian aid over the course of the full-scale invasion

  • Improved national legal standards for and understanding of disability after a decade of advocating for disability rights and inclusivity policies

  • Expanded government healthcare support during COVID-19 by ensuring 1,000+ healthcare workers’ insurance covered COVID-19.

  • Created an independent media company

  • Co-founded an ecological coalition researching and advocating against heavy industrial metallurgical pollution

  • As proof of their high standards of operation, UoRC are long-standing partners of the European Delegation to the EU, European Endowment for Democracy, German Marshall Fund, International Renaissance as well as the now dismantled USAID, amongst many other of the most prominent organizations and foundations both in Ukraine and internationally.

When the full-scale invasion began, UoRC’s capacity and localized integration meant it was ready to act and more significantly, to expand.

The Ukrainian volunteer movement that sprung up in response to Russia’s invasion was and remains the lifeblood of Ukraine’s resistance. And UoRC was right in the middle of it — coordinating medical first aid centers, delivering humanitarian and medical equipment to pre-frontline and frontline areas, fundraising for emergency items. War creates a million hyper-specific needs to immediately respond to. UoRC knew those needs better than most and could deliver on them quickly. While all these activities were necessary and impactful, this style of hyperactive war response was under-utilizing what they could uniquely offer their people and country. Their skills could be put to something that Ukraine’s grassroots volunteer movement could not do: they could address deeper systemic problems by organizing social capital into effective institutions capable of transforming communities.

“There are the immediate war needs and then there are the long-term effects of war. We realized we had the institutional capacity to address these bigger long-term effects like the systemic recovery of our people. So we stepped up to the challenge and are doing it.” - Juliy Morozov, Co-Founder of HART

UoRC is a local independent organization addressing huge problems with big vision because they think strategically, integrate within international, national, and subnational networks, and work directly at the community level.

  • "We are grateful and appreciate ForPEACE's contribution to the resilience of our NGO and Ukraine.

    Thanks to ForPEACE’s help we were able to purchase the facility for HART, cover our administrative expenses, fund renovation of HART, and provide psychological support and physical rehabilitation support for veterans and their family members. 

    The impact of ForPEACE’s help was significant for our organization and beneficiaries of our services because their direct individualized relationships with local Ukrainian partners means they are adaptive and responsive to needs usually not covered by regular aid organizations.”

    - Anya Yemelyanova, Executive Director of NGO “Union of Responsible Citizens”

    To date forPEACE has donated over $65,000.00 in support of HART. We have been partners with HART since it’s beginning: from being one of the primary donors enabling the purchase of the facility in 2023, to supporting the salaries of the administrative and therapy teams and ongoing renovations into 2026.

Support Proactive Inspiring Ukrainians who in the Midst of War Choose to Respond, Revitalize, and Resolve

forPEACE’s unique people-to-people relationships with local grassroots movements means our methods naturally support an ideal “capacity building” model. The entire community is involved in establishing their priorities, lead the solution process, and maintain control of the entire project. Effectively, we — thanks to you!— are ensuring that locals are successfully empowered to take responsibility of each other in their own community.