Protecting children who don't have parental care

Care in Action continues to assist hundreds of refugee mothers with children, and we are also increasing our efforts to protect and assist children without parents in our region and throughout Ukraine. UNICEF estimated there were over 100,000 children who lived in an orphanage or institution such as a children's care home or boarding school for orphans (1.3% of Ukrainian children). Since the war some children’s care homes have transferred to other countries, while some are displaced within Ukraine.

For over 20 years we have worked to improve the lives of children who don’t have their parents’ care, and to help them live within foster families. In war time their needs are much more urgent. In response we have:

• Improved food security for the 28 foster families and 27 Family Style Orphanages (where up to 10 children live as a family) who we already worked with in our region. We do this through aid deliveries and use donations to help. Though usually these foster families have enough state support, a combination of rising food and fuel prices and shortages in shops have made it hard to provide the essentials. Some have also taken in refugees.

• Assisted over 150 foster families in Kharkiv, Rivne and Zakarpattia Regions, through financial aid for food, medicine and transport for evacuation, via partner organisations who we know and trust.

• Delivered aid to 562 displaced children from state care homes, who have arrived in Lviv Region, including a group of 105 young children with learning difficulties. Our director in Lviv, Maria Boiko was interviewed by the Independent.ie; a short excerpt of the interview appears below:

“The 105 children, most with special needs, had come from a region in the south-east that has been under attack from Russian forces for three weeks. They travelled for 13 hours, with only a bag and the clothes they wore.

“There are 105 children in care, they are small, from two to six years old,” said Maria Boiko, who works with Care in Action in Lviv, a charity that has been supporting evacuated children and families. “They came with 20 carers and their children as well. Now in that building there are 180 people. When they arrived, they were tired and confused but not upset.”

The full article with insights into the plight of children evacuated from orphanages can be read via this link.

The stories of children who our team encounters can be painful and also point to a serious concern: One mixed-race baby was abandoned by a refugee, who headed to the border and left a sad note explaining that she gave up her rights as a mother. Thankfully he is with a safe foster family, but too many children have ended up with traffickers in these desperate times. 

As a member of the Commission for Child Protection in Lviv, our Care for Carers Coordinator is actively working for children’s rights. She continues to give foster parents legal advice, and they can still rely on our therapist-led support groups which they value so highly.

Thank you, to all of our supporters, who make it possible for us to live up to our motto in these desperate times:

“Children need more than food, a roof over their head and basic education, they also need family, love and positive integration into society.” – Werner Lehnis