Behind Blue Eyes: Giving voice to Ukraine's children through podcasting

Since the spring of 2022, Ukrainian charity project Behind Blue Eyes has been helping children from the deoccupied and near-the-frontline territories of Ukraine, and in 2024 they launched a podcast featuring their young beneficiaries. The Fix spoke with Artem Skorohodko, co-founder of Behind Blue Eyes, on the importance of children’s creative development, giving them a platform and the subtleties of interviewing kids, especially those affected by war.

Helping kids through creative empowerment

Behind Blue Eyes was officially founded in summer 2022 by Skorohodko and his colleague from Monster Energy Ukraine, a local office of an American energy drinks brand, Dmytro Zubkov. However the first humanitarian missions to liberated Ukrainian villages in cooperation with the other volunteers happened already in spring 2022. Since the very beginning founders of the project they emphasise creative cooperation with children, not just providing them with humanitarian aid. 

It started with giving children disposable cameras and asking them to take photos during the week. The children had no limits and documented everything around them: their family and friends, nature and the destruction caused by Russian attacks on their village. Additionally children were asked to create a personal wishlist according to which they received gifts thanks to donations. The purpose of this was not only to document war, but to show kids that creativity can be a powerful tool to realise their own dreams, which shouldn’t be taken away by war, said organisers in an interview for DTF Magazine.

For example, 13 year-old Nastya from the village in the Kharkiv region described her dream as: “Peace for all children in the world and becoming a confectioner”. The team has bought her confectionery equipment, clothing and organised an online confectionery course from Milk Bar, a popular Kyiv restaurant specialising in sweets. 

Since the start of the project 216 children took part in the creative support programme by Behind Blue Eyes, and more than 1,500 visited charity events in 19 villages, said Skorohodko to The Fix. He adds that missions supporting children actually influence the whole local communities, because people appreciate organised events and remember them well.

Podcasting with kids

Blue Eyed Podcast by Behind Blue Eyes was an organic continuation of content development around the organisation’s charity work. During every expedition Skorohodko has asked kids four  questions about favourite and least favourite activities, their vision of the future and their dream, and recorded it on a dictaphone. Later children’s answers were used to personalise dedicated posts on social media with the analog photos taken by them. During one mission in the Zaporizhzhya region, Behind Blue Eyes worked with a family that had seven kids of different ages. Skorohodko recorded without pause every child answering four questions. He got impressed by the differences between answers from children of one family and the funny and sad, touching things they could say. 

The team has published six podcast episodes recorded in different villages, including one special with Nastya. The podcasts usually last up to 30 minutes and include from two to six participants of different sex and age. The interviews are held in conditions familiar to children – in the yard, at home, in the field nearby, at school etc. Children are not being asked about the war in a direct way, but some of their answers naturally go into that or any other adult topic, such as violence or ecology. The questions could be focused around children’s favourite activities, dreamhouse, their plans for the future and so on. Skorohodko, who usually hosts the podcast, jokes with the kids, and asks additional questions based on children’s answers or things surrounding them.

Sometimes children cry during the interview, like one girl from the fifth episode, who survived the occupation of her village in Kherson region and the flood after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam by the Russian army in 2023. Along with the other kids she was asked about her thoughts on home, and Skorohodko managed to turn the conversation to a positive side by asking the girl about her feelings after she returned home after the evacuation. The same episode featured a boy, who told in laughter about the occupation of his house by Russian soldiers.

A psychologist is not yet involved in Behind Blue Eyes work with children. Asked about the team’s do’s and don’ts in interviewing children, Skorohodko underlined in conversation with The Fix that the organisation is not positioning itself as specialising in psychological help. However, they have plans in this field. Behind Blue Eyes is focused on treating kids as an equal, as friends and avoiding retraumatisation by asking only abstract questions, not related to strongly negative experiences. Asking questions which could reactivate a child’s pain and grief from traumatic events violates UNICEF guidelines for interviewing children.

The podcast is not promoted on streaming services on a regular basis, but if the cooperation with the donor requires paid promotion of the content, the team does it. Behind Blue Eyes is a part of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). One more partner is Puma Ukraine, which supports the organisation financially and provides their products upon request. And further, upon request, current needs are covered e.g. thanks to various IT companies. Donations from fans of the project, which were the main source of support for Behind Blue Eyes till October 2023, have decreased significantly, Skorohodko told The Fix. According to him, the support of 20 children during one trip costs approximately 4570 EUR.

Despite the lack of paid promotion on the platforms, 70% of Blue Eyed Podcast audience  listened to the episode till the end, the project’s co-founder told The Fix. Overall 6 episodes were listened for around 8500 times across all platforms – Spotify, Apple Podcast, Megogo, YouTube. On Instagram Behind Blue Eyes publishes parts of the conversations with kids in video format. The posts gain positive comments about the project and children, there are frequent references to the film “C’mon, c’mon” with Joaquin Phoenix about a radio journalist interviewing children in the US. Skorohodko mentions it as a thing which could inspire him to start the podcast for Behind Blue Eyes, as he saw the film before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His favourite comment on podcasts from the followers is:

The world needs less podcasts with shady influencers and more podcasts with kids from Chornobaivka

In the near future, Behind Blue Eyes is going to release an art book in English and Ukrainian with the photos of children, publish more video content on YouTube, probably including new podcast episodes, and organise a two day festival for up to 100 children in 3 remote front-line villages in the south of Ukraine. 

Skorohodko pointed out that there are new challenges in work with children from territories, which were liberated more than one year ago. “We already identify other needs – lack of places for children to spend time together. We see a certain apathy among them, such as a loss of social skills. Because, starting with COVID, they have forgotten how to be in a group. We want to continue working with it and promote creative development, especially in the regions”, Behind Blue Eyes co-founder told The Fix.

Source of the cover photo: courtesy of Behind Blue Eyes

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