In a pine forest near Kyiv in the summer of 2014, during one of the most intense periods of fighting between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine, a self-assigned group of volunteers established Lisova Zastava, meaning "forest outpost," a camp for children they rescued from the contested Donbas region.
In less than a year, through crowdfunding and private sponsorship, Lisova Zastava grew from a rough-and-ready tent camp into a fully functioning complex to which displaced people and Ukrainian soldiers could sent their children. Some of them lived there full time, but most visited for 1- to 3-week shifts. A team of instructors and psychologists, themselves mostly from Donbas, worked to provide a safe and comfortable environment for their charges, ages 5 to 20, as well as rehabilitation from the psychological consequences of growing up in a war zone.
