In August 2025, ZHAW lecturers Florence Messerli and Beate Krieger travelled to Lviv to meet colleagues from Ukraine. The face-to-face meeting marked the culmination of a project that had been running for several months. Even getting there was an adventure, recalls occupational therapist Beate Krieger. Together with a colleague, she arrived by train in the Ukrainian city at 4 a.m. during a curfew. “We were picked up at the station by a driver with a special permit and taken through the eerily empty city to our hotel.” The war was constantly present throughout the three-day stay. “The sirens sounded about five times a day,” recalls Beate Krieger, “and on two occasions explosives went off nearby.”
Since the outbreak of the war in 2022, people in Ukraine have been physically and psychologically injured and traumatised on a daily basis. To improve rehabilitation services for affected children, the ZHAW School of Health Sciences and the local NGO Patients of Ukraine carried out a knowledge-transfer project between 2022 and 2025. The aim was to improve the training of physiotherapists and occupational therapists working with children at Ukrainian universities. The project was initiated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and funded by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Florence Messerli
Lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Physiotherapy
“Despite the burden of living through the war, our Ukrainian colleagues’ willingness to learn, exchange ideas and embrace new approaches was impressive. It is incredible what they are achieving under these circumstances!”
Goal: improved teaching
In Ukraine, 70 universities train physiotherapists and occupational therapists. However, many of these institutions lack the capacity to train sufficient numbers of professionals according to scientifically validated methods and international standards. For the project, ten Ukrainian lecturers in occupational therapy and ten lecturers in physiotherapy were selected. On the ZHAW side, Florence Messerli, a lecturer at the Institute of Physiotherapy, and Dr Beate Krieger, a lecturer at the Institute of Occupational Therapy, were involved. The project comprised three phases, with only the third and final phase being held on site in Lviv. During the first two phases, the exchange between experts from Switzerland and Ukraine took place online. The occupational therapy and physiotherapy groups met separately.
During the first phase of the project, the physiotherapists held weekly video conferences over a period of two and a half months to develop teaching materials and a curriculum for paediatric physiotherapy. The situation was different for the occupational therapists: as occupational therapy education in Ukraine is still in its infancy, Beate Krieger found significant differences in the level of professional knowledge within her group. She first had to identify what additional content was needed. The Ukrainians in her group ultimately showed a particular interest in occupational therapy theories, modern teaching methods and the role of occupational therapy in paediatric intensive care units.
Meetings by video conference
In the second phase, Florence Messerli’s physiotherapy group used additional online sessions to discuss how the material they had developed was working in practice during teaching and how it could be adapted. During this period, Beate Krieger taught her colleagues for two hours a week by video conference. The occupational therapy lecturer gave presentations on topics requested by the participants. For a further two hours each week, the Ukrainian lecturers themselves led the sessions.
In the third phase, Beate Krieger and Florence Messerli finally travelled to Lviv together with two colleagues from Zurich Children’s Hospital for two days in order to meet their colleagues in person. In the occupational therapy group, two Ukrainian lecturers began by teaching with the aid of case studies and videos. Beate Krieger and her colleague from Zurich Children’s Hospital then took over. They put the lecturers in the role of students so that they could experience participatory and interactive teaching methods for themselves. “This was completely new to them,” says Krieger. Ukrainian universities have, until now, relied heavily on lecture-based teaching. For Beate Krieger, it is more important that future occupational therapists learn how to develop solutions together rather than simply memorising facts.
Healing through painting
A colleague from Zurich Children’s Hospital gave a presentation on trauma in children. According to Beate Krieger, many of the participants had tears in their eyes afterwards. “We then painted together with the lecturers. Something similar happened to what we often see with children under emotional strain: all of a sudden, they were laughing again.” Free painting is a method used in occupational therapy to help people under stress experience a sense of self-efficacy.
The physiotherapy group likewise exchanged ideas about teaching approaches. In addition, the physiotherapists from Switzerland and Ukraine worked together to develop training programmes and treatment strategies for the rehabilitation of children. The group visited two rehabilitation centres in Lviv, where the participants were able to practise with young patients.
Beate Krieger
Lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Occupational Therapy
“The Ukrainian lecturers are accustomed to lecture-based teaching. More recent participatory and interactive teaching methods were completely new to them.”
Follow-up projects already under way
The Ukrainian lecturers participated in the project with great commitment throughout. According to Krieger and Messerli, they said at the end that the practical content had been highly useful and that they intended to apply much of it in their own day-to-day work. They also emphasised that they had felt taken seriously as experts throughout the project.
The WHO likewise assessed the project as a success. Follow-up projects are now already under way, some of them involving new partner organisations. The ZHAW Institute of Occupational Therapy has been approached again. Beate Krieger is helping to develop a curriculum for paediatric occupational therapy at Ukrainian universities. A further project is aiming to show colleagues what contribution occupational therapy can make in helping people return to work following an injury or illness.
A remedy against helplessness
Beate Krieger also draws a positive conclusion. “Although the project was small, we were able to achieve a great deal,” she says. “We have trained teaching staff who can now pass on their new knowledge to future occupational therapists and physiotherapists.” On a personal level, the project helped her to feel less helpless in relation to the war in Ukraine. “Taking action feels good.” Florence Messerli likewise emphasises the mutual benefits of the exchange: “In this project, we supported our Ukrainian colleagues. Before long, however, their expertise in rehabilitation could prove very valuable to us.”
