Responding to the Corona crisis

Because of Corona schools and many institutions in Ukraine closed on March 13th. Children could no longer have meals and care at crisis centres, and others who live in children’s homes because of lack of parental care at home were sent back to their parents. At the same time many parents have lost their jobs or have unpaid leave, in isolation it's hard for them to find a new income. We can help.

We have stepped up to the challenge of adapting our services and started by communicating with the people we work with to find out what their needs are and the best ways to serve during this time. As a result some of our services are continuing online, but we could not ignore the immediate needs for food, medicine and hygiene supplies for families who have lost income.

Lilia, a girl we know, lives with six foster siblings in one room. Her father usually finds casual labour and her mother had finally found a job, but both parents have now lost their income. Lilia’s siblings usually spend their afternoons at Lviv Child Care Centre, where they have nutritious meals, warm showers, and activities including our STEP classes for life and work skills. In isolation the situation was desperate.

Care in Action mobilized the funds needed and our team sprang into action, identifying 22 families who needed immediate support. Then food, hygiene products and medicine were purchased to meet the individual needs. Volunteers offered their cars to transport the goods, and these were soon piled high with supplies. Enough basic supplies to last 50 children and 30 adults through most of the month! By the end of April we will help 50 families in this way.

“The reaction of the people we delivered to was amazing. People were incredibly grateful and happy that we care and didn’t forget them. This made all of us on the team want to do more.” – Mary Antoniv, Care in Action

"Thank you that you also bought asthma medicines for my mother. They have become expensive and I just couldn’t find them." 

"Thank you for helping us. This month I was left without work and it was hard for me to feed my children.”

This is not the only way we are helping:

• Sponsored children continue to receive monthly support, which is more important than ever
• Children and teenagers are tutored online so their study can continue
• Young people are joining us online to discuss how to cope with the changes and continue developing skills for life and work
• Foster parents have help for the challenges of homeschooling and caring for children in isolation through online meetings with a psychotherapist

Thank you to every donor and volunteer who has helped us to respond to the most urgent needs. We are planning how to help more children to study during this time, even if they don’t currently have access to the internet. There is so much more we can do! 

We have made an appeal for donations so we can continue this initiative through the coming months, to help more families across the Lviv region, and in Ukraine people are responding generously. If you would like to help us reach more families in crisis, please contact info@care-in-action.org (in English), step@care-in-action.org (in Ukrainian), or simply donate today!

"Thank you very much for helping our families, we are very pleased with our cooperation. Thank you for such marvelous work. - P. Natalia, Lviv Center for Child Care