Themes by tag: children

Volunteers of the Save Ukraine charitable foundation evacuate people from areas near the front line. Since early November this year, more than 105 thousand Ukrainians have been provided with help. Most of them are families with children.

By prior arrangement, journalists are welcome to talk to families rescued from frontlines. 

As a reminder, volunteers of the Save Ukraine charitable foundation also organize rescue missions to return Ukrainian children illicitly transferred to Russia and Russian-controlled territories. The first mission took place a year ago, on November 8, 2022. In total, as of November 2023, the charity workers have brought 200 children back.

• casualties
• children
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• evacuation

Oksana, born in Kherson, has 27 years of teaching experience (pursuing a career in out-of-school learning). At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Oksana headed to her sister’s house on the left bank of the Kherson region and ended up in an occupied area. She managed to escape on June 1, 2023. Now she lives in a public housing community in the Kyiv region, and since September she has been holding Ukrainian language and literature classes for 9th and 11th graders in-person and online. Oksana gives online lessons in one of the kitchens of the social housing so as not to disturb other IDPs living nearby. 

In addition to teaching essential school subjects, she also runs the Dzhura club, an all-Ukrainian game for children and youth, a form of extracurricular work on the patriotic and moral education of children

For reference: November 11, 2023, marks the one-year anniversary of retaking Kherson. Also, during last year’s counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated some districts of the Kherson region and part of the Mykolaiv region on the right bank of the Dnipro River.

• children
• occupation
• women
• Kyiv

The idea comes from Illia Shpolianskyi, an anti-terrorist operation in 2014-15 veteran and father of three. It was after returning from the war in 2015 that Illia came up with the idea to create a comic that would help children understand their parents who had to defend the country and support parents adapting to civilian life.

With the full-scale invasion outbreak, Illia rejoined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and created and led the the Angry Birds combined strike UAV unit. In 2022, the NGO “Association of ATO Veterans and People with Disabilities” submitted a comic book project to the Ukrainian Veterans Fund competition and got support, enabling its publishing in a printed run of 2,500 copies and sent to military families free of charge. Besides reading the story, the comic’s owners can also complete a quest and receive a pins set depicting the main characters as an additional gift. The project got hundreds of positive reviews from parents and children. The comics are now released digitally, and the team is looking for funding to make additional copies in print and is working on the next story, “My mom returned from the war.”

• children
• culture
• military

Radomyr Tiutiunnyk is a school student from Kharkiv, whose father is a military man. The man told his son how much the soldiers of the Armed Forces needed drones, so Radomyr decided to try to assemble UAVs himself. The Internet came to his aid. He learned about the necessary details and the process of assembling drones. Currently, Radomyr has sent 50 kamikaze drones to the front line. The cost of one is about UAH 15,000. The young man prints all the details on a 3D printer, and assembles the drones after school or on weekends. Radomyr is thinking about teaching one of his friends to assemble UAVs in order to speed up the process.   

• children
• volunteers

Yevheniia Molchanova and her husband founded the family farm “Green Grove” in Dnipropetrovsk region. With the beginning of the big war, Yevheniia opened their farm for those fleeing from shelling: she took in displaced people and animals rescued from hot spots. “Green Grove” became a shelter for a total of 311 people fleeing from the war with their pets. More than 1,500 animals in need of evacuation, treatment and rehabilitation also received help at the farm. Some of them include: donkeys, horses, pigs and sheep. Animals were brought from the hottest spots, in particular, Mariupol and Bakhmut.

Over time, the farm was reformatted into a rehabilitation center. Nowadays, families of fallen servicemen and children with disabilities come here. Psychologists work on the territory, and people can undergo treatment via equine- and dog- assisted therapy programs.

• animals
• casualties
• children
• psychological support
• women
• Dnipro

A “Hobbit house” shelter was constructed on the territory of a primary school in Hostomel. A building resembles a Hobbit house (the Hobbits are one of the central characters in the Lord of the Rings series). The Gurtum Charity Foundation acted as the project implementer, and the diaspora of Ukrainians in Japan (Kraiany NGO) took over full funding for the construction. Later, other philanthropists joined them.

The shelter’s fairy-tale-like look aims to minimize stress for the children. Since safety standards prohibit any decorations, such as decorative beams or a fireplace, inside the premises, the walls were decorated with thematic drawings: books, a fireplace, and a Hobbit hat. The shelter can accommodate 55 people.

• children
• reconstruction

In the spring of 2022, amidst the full-scale invasion, Ivan Prybylo and his wife Svitlana decided to start their own business. Namely, snail farming. Although Ivan had already joined the Defense Forces ranks together with his younger son, this did not stop him from starting a snail farming business. At the same time, Ivan’s family home, which the family calls his brainchild, has become a refuge for those fleeing the war. The displaced people still stay here today.

When the snail farm had just turned a profit, Ivan’s family learned about the death of the family man. They did not dare to stop the business, because it was the defender’s dream. In addition, Ivan’s wife and daughter-in-law set up a farm camp for children from the eastern regions who had never been to western Ukraine. The family business was also supported by the Ukrainian Veterans Fund, which helped the snail farm receive financial assistance.

• casualties
• children
• dead
• military
• Lviv

Psychologists from the Voices of Children Foundation will visit the de-occupied Katiuzhanka in Kyiv Oblast on World Mental Health Day observed on October 10. The specialists will conduct group psychosocial sessions with children and their parents.

The foundation’s Kyiv office will also hold psychological sessions for families with children affected by the war.

For reference: The Children’s Voices Charitable Foundation provides psychological and psychosocial assistance to war-torn children.

• children
• psychological support
• Kyiv

On October 7, a school reconstructed by the Brave to Rebuild project volunteers to get running in the Chernihiv region. The building suffered from a full-scale Russian invasion. 

The school is housed in the Mazanka Ukrainian traditional hut built in 1923 is the great thing about this particular school. Among other things, the volunteers rebuilt the walls using authentic technology: they kneaded sand and clay with straw with their feet in a specially prepared container. The resulting mass was beaten to create the right consistency. The local community was also involved in the work. 

The roof and windows were replaced, and a ramp was installed. And artists painted a mural with traditional Ukrainian ornaments on the school.

Prior accreditation is required.

• children
• reconstruction
• Chernihiv

At the time of the occupation, Viktoriia was the principal of the Kalynivka Lyceum of the Snihurivka City Council (Mykolaiv Oblast), as well as a chemistry teacher and the natural scence for kids. 

The occupied educational institutions’ principals suspended their work. However, Victoria managed to organize Ukrainian education for about 40 children.

Viktoriia and two other teachers held in-home classes according to an individual schedule to ensure that the students did waste an academic year. To prevent the occupiers from finding out about the educational work, they pass off their teaching activities as “providing consultations.” Teachers who had left the occupation sent assignments to Viktoriia, and she got online without Internet service in a garbage dump to send it to her students via Bluetooth.

Today, she serves as the Snihurivka Lyceum principal in the Mykolaiv region. The Russian occupiers wanted to introduce the educational process in this institution, but have failed miserably. During their retreat, they looted the lyceum, and even earlier they hit the institution with two S-300 missiles. Part of the school is still destroyed and they are trying to rebuild it.

Journalists can contact Victoria online or offline.

For reference: the Snihurivka community in Mykolaiv region was occupied from March to November 10, 2022. Four schools in Snihurivka were damaged during the full-scale invasion (one of them is beyond repair due to enemy attacks, and another is being designed with a bomb shelter and a digital educational center for the means of philanthropists). Filming the scene requires the Oblast Military Administration permission. 

As a reminder, Ukraine celebrates Teacher’s Day on October 1.

• children
• occupation
• women
• Mykolaiv