Themes by tag: children
The Ukrainian Association of Football has opened registration for the first children’s amputee football camp, which will take place as part of a new branch of the Liha Duzhykh project, Liha Duzhykh Dity.
The camp will take place on August 7–11 in one of Ukraine’s western regions and will be free of charge for children and their guardians.
The project is designed for children with limb amputations or impaired function of one of their limbs. Amputee football does not require special physical abilities — only a willingness to try: on crutches or with a prosthesis, as an outfield player or goalkeeper, the camp is open to everyone.
Liha Duzhykh Dity was created in response to a stereotype that has often kept children with different medical conditions outside active social life. The project aims to give them the opportunity to fully realize themselves and find support and like-minded people from an early age.
Background: The program is implemented by the Ukrainian Association of Football as part of the Liha Duzhykh Dity social project, with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine within the Development Cooperation and Democracy Support Programme.
Markiian was raised by his father, along with his grandmother and grandfather. His mother left the family when he was one and a half years old and has not been involved in raising him for the past eight years. The family lives near Lviv.
Before the full-scale russian invasion, Markiian’s father, Ihor, worked as a driver. In November 2022, he joined Ukraine’s defense forces. He was killed in the fighting for Bakhmut in the spring of 2023.
Markiian’s grandmother, Halyna, had to become the family’s main source of support: she raised her grandson, supported her husband, and could only grieve when she was alone.
Markiian was six years old when his father was killed. He struggled deeply with the loss: within a week, he began experiencing knee pain and sleep problems. The family sought help from a psychologist.
The family is available for both online and in-person interviews by prior arrangement.
Background: The Children of Heroes Charity Foundation supports children who have lost one or both parents because of the war. The foundation provides immediate, personalized assistance, including humanitarian aid, psychological and medical support, as well as educational and development opportunities until the children reach adulthood.
Participants:
– Oleksandra Dvoretska, head of policy development at the President of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative;
– Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine;
– a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine;
– Radmila Sehol, Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation at Kyiv Aviation Institute State University;
– a young person who left a temporarily occupied territory since 2022 and is currently studying at a Ukrainian university.
Topics for discussion:
– Safe departure of young people from temporarily occupied territories;
– State support and integration after leaving;
– Admission to Ukrainian higher education institutions: the 2026 admission campaign, Quota 2, education centers and the admission process;
– Opportunities for students from temporarily occupied territories: benefits, adaptation and real-life stories of those who have left.
Background: Ukraine’s admission campaign is underway, and young people from temporarily occupied territories have access to specific mechanisms and guarantees. The briefing will explain how to leave safely, enter a Ukrainian university without taking the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT) and without a full set of documents, as well as what support students receive after admission. A particular focus will be placed on practical step-by-step guidance and the real-life experience of a young person who has already gone through the process. The event will provide answers to questions that remain among the most pressing for applicants from temporarily occupied territories and their families each year.
The Ukrainian Association of Football has opened registration for the first children’s amputee football camp, which will take place as part of a new branch of the Liha Duzhykh project, Liha Duzhykh Dity.
The camp will take place on August 7–11 in one of Ukraine’s western regions and will be free of charge for children and their guardians.
The project is designed for children with limb amputations or impaired function of one of their limbs. Amputee football does not require special physical abilities — only a willingness to try: on crutches or with a prosthesis, as an outfield player or goalkeeper, the camp is open to everyone.
Liha Duzhykh Dity was created in response to a stereotype that has often kept children with different medical conditions outside active social life. The project aims to give them the opportunity to fully realize themselves and find support and like-minded people from an early age.
Background: The program is implemented by the Ukrainian Association of Football as part of the Liha Duzhykh Dity social project, with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine within the Development Cooperation and Democracy Support Programme.
Before russia’s full-scale invasion, Mariia-Viktoriia and Ivan lived in Hlukhiv, Sumy region, and were raising their five-year-old son, Volodymyr. After February 24, Hlukhiv was under enemy siege for a month and a half. The city lacked medicine and food. Mariia-Viktoriia worried that her son and grandmother might fall ill.
Ivan joined the military in the first days of the war. He initially served at checkpoints in the city. In late May 2022, he was sent to Kyiv and later to Donetsk region as part of the 53rd Mechanized Brigade. Mariia and her son remained in Hlukhiv. She ran a children’s development center and worked a lot. They did not see each other often, but Ivan always tried to get away and come for his son’s birthday or September 1.
In the summer of 2023, while stationed near Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ivan decided to pursue a second degree and enrolled at Poltava State Agrarian University. In February 2024, the couple spent two weeks together while Ivan was attending a university session. In March 2024, he was killed.
Life in Hlukhiv became unbearable for Mariia and her son because of constant russian shelling. In addition, as the city is located close to the border, enemy FPV drone strikes became a regular occurrence there.
Mariia and her son now live in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region. Little Vova goes to school and attends extracurricular activities, and has made friends.
Vova’s biggest dream is for the war to end. After that, he wants to travel to Japan.
By prior arrangement, the family is available for in-person and online interviews.
Background: The Children of Heroes Foundation supports the family. In the summer of 2025, Vova went to a summer camp for the first time and enjoyed it very much. In December 2024, one of the boy’s biggest dreams came true: he met Ukrainian television host Dmytro Komarov.
On July 22, the Media Center Ukraine will host a briefing titled: “Life-saving inventions: Students from frontline Donetsk Oblast win young inventors competition.”
Participants:
– Ben Cohenburger, American attorney;
– Varvara Skrypnyk, co-founder and deputy director of Ukraine Invention Convention;
– Stepan Zots, student from Kramatorsk, inventor;
– Yaroslava, student from Sloviansk, inventor.
Topics for discussion:
– scientific opportunities for students in Donetsk Oblast;
– achievements of young Ukrainian inventors on international platforms.
Background: Ukraine Invention Convention is Ukraine’s first young inventors competition based on the NextMinds (Connecticut Invention Convention) model, the oldest invention program in the United States, which has nurtured more than 300,000 young inventors. Students complete seven stages — from identifying a real-life problem to creating a working prototype — and compete with peers from more than 30 countries. For children growing up during war, inventing restores something essential: the feeling that they can change the world.
Following a russian strike in December 2023, the Odesa rowing club Chornomorets was left with almost no sports equipment. Two russian drones hit the base where over a hundred boats were stored, leaving the club on the brink of closure.
However, the European rowing community stepped in to help. Support came from clubs in the Netherlands, which organized a boat donation drive and continue to fund annual two-week training camps in the Netherlands for children. Rowers from Germany and Lithuania also contributed. Furthermore, thanks to support from the UK, the club received a coastal rowing boat (a coxed quadruple scull) and four 20-person dragon boats.
Today, Chornomorets is open to both children and adults, and veterans are also welcomed to participate in training sessions.
Journalists are invited to cover these training sessions.
Background: Dragon boat racing is a spectacular team sport featuring large canoes decorated with dragon heads and tails.
Tag is about movement, contact, passing something on, and creating a safe space — and then repeating the cycle. This logic of shared, continuous action has become the metaphor and central theme of the closing event of the project “Strengthening Comprehensive Reintegration Support for Returned Children.”
When it comes to reintegrating a child who has experienced occupation, forced displacement, or isolation in frontline communities, there are no minor details. Every part of the process matters. It involves everyone — from a school psychologist and a community case manager to relevant ministries. If one link in the chain fails, a child may be left alone with trauma whose effects can last for years. That is why the event aims to bring together all stakeholders involved in the process on a single platform, with the child’s own voice serving as the starting point.
Topics for discussion:
- Teenagers Tymofii, Olia and Serhii will share their personal experiences. The discussion will be moderated by Kyrylo Nevdokha, Head of the “DIYMO” Children and Youth Office under Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy.
- The launch of a school-based reintegration mentoring programme as a systemic response to the challenges of war.
- The experience of psychologists, case managers and social workers.
- Presentation of the analytical study “Returning Childhood: Psychological Support for Children on the Path to Reintegration,” focusing on the psychological and psychosocial reintegration of children in Ukraine.
Panel discussions will feature representatives of government institutions, international organizations and experts, including Olena Rozvadovska (co-founder of the charitable foundation Voices of Children), Iryna Tuliakova (Coordination Center for the Development of Family-Based Care), Oleksandra Dvoretska (the President of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative), Van Chi Pham (UNICEF Ukraine), Anastasiia Konovalova (Deputy Minister of Education and Science), and Member of Parliament Roman Hryshchuk.
Participants will also be able to explore children’s stories through the photo exhibition “A Thread: Transformation Instead of Brokenness,” created by the Voices of Children charitable foundation together with photographer Marta Syrko.
The event will take place in Kyiv on June 23. Journalists can review the full programme of the event. Accreditation is required to attend.
Participants:
—– Daria Gerasymchuk, Advisor-Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Child Rehabilitation;
—– Anastasia Svoboda, founder of the NGO “Academy of Care”;
—– Tetiana Kudko, clinical psychologist at the Petro Yatsyk Gnidyn Lyceum of the Zolochiv Village Council, Boryspil District, Kyiv Region;
—– Olga Marandyuk, Deputy Director for Educational Development at the private educational institution KMDSh.
Topics for discussion:
— Fostering a culture of mental health, empathy, and inclusive thinking among children;
— Presentation of the results of the “Lessons of Care” initiative for the academic year;
— Presentation of the “Care Box”.
Background information: Today, Ukrainian educators are working under extremely challenging conditions: alongside the educational process, they must support children who are experiencing loss, forced relocation, separation from loved ones, and air raid alerts. Even adults’ conversations about the war cause stress in children. This is an enormous emotional burden that requires special tools and methodological support. To help educators talk to children about complex topics in simple language, as well as to support teachers in their daily work, the NGO “Academy of Care,” in partnership with Daria Gerasymchuk, the Advisor — Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Child Rehabilitation, has launched the educational initiative “Lessons of Care”.
The event will take place without simultaneous interpretation into English.
Odesa native Ruslan Khomutenko is a karate coach with over 20 years of experience and a volunteer. He is also the founder of the “Mowgli” Children’s Center in Odesa.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ruslan was on vacation in Cambodia. On February 27, 2022, he returned to Ukraine via a long route through Cambodia, Thailand, Qatar, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova. From the very first days, he organized the evacuation of families with children. He personally conducted more than 100 evacuations, including from the “gray zones” of the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions.
In the facilities of the “Mowgli” Children’s Center, he organized a shelter (a transit point) for evacuated families and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who reached Odesa on their own. He also established a humanitarian headquarters to provide assistance to families with children. As of May 2026, 1,700 families in Odesa and Kherson receive humanitarian aid through his initiative.
In addition, displaced children and children of military personnel have the opportunity to attend the “Mowgli” Children’s Center in Odesa free of charge. (Two of the club’s six sports halls were damaged during russian attacks).
Ruslan travels to Kherson every week to hold karate classes for children. Due to the security situation in the city, the classes take place in one of the bomb shelters. Children of various ages attend the training sessions, with the youngest participant being just 4 years old. Ruslan also conducts self-defense classes for women in both Kherson and Odesa.
By prior arrangement, journalists can interview Ruslan in Odesa, Kherson, or via an online format.
