Let's help blind children refugees from Ukraine

Dear friends!

 Thanks to your support, our organization is not only coping with the difficulties of wartime and continuing its work. Our Humanitarian Aid Headquarters continuously provides support to families raising children with disabilities. This includes food packages, hygiene products, medications, rehabilitation equipment, toys, clothing, and textbooks.

Unfortunately, the situation in Kharkiv has become even worse. There are constant power outages, and there is often no heat or water. And children suffer the most.

 We understand how important it is to provide Ukrainian families raising children with severe visual impairments with the opportunity to receive specialist support, not only financial but also psychological support.

 Over the past few months, we have been able to improve the material and technical resources of our social enterprise, SotsIntel.

This significantly colored the brightness of books like ours. Now, most of Socintel’s book production operations are being completed independently.

 Our team of specialists strives to provide parents and teachers with the necessary knowledge for the development and upbringing of children in extreme conditions such as war.

Knowledge that will help them overcome difficulties and prevent their children from stunting their development.

We have printed 100 copies of the methodological manual "Hands for Hugging" and the book for parents and children "About Emotions."

We have also printed 100 copies of the brochure "Your Helper in Braille Script." We have also prepared for publication

a collection of fairy tales by Ukrainian  writers, "Winter Poured Snowflakes on Your Palms."

Thanks to the support of Global Given, we were able to organize the online parenting school "Self-Help Academy," where parents meet with specialists, attend lectures, and receive answers to their questions. We have also launched a "Parenting Universities" chat on our Telegram channel, where we post methodological materials for parents and specialists.

 We are participating in the project "Supporting Children in Times of Crisis: The Power of Positive Fatherhood."

The events we are experiencing today are terrifying and painful. Even if we are not physically harmed, everyone—both adults and children—feels stress. Children are vulnerable to the effects of war and its consequences.

Our psychologists have assessed over 50 children for stress. We hold meetings twice a month for children and their parents, "Stress Inoculation" training sessions, and art therapy sessions that help relieve anxiety, fear, and emotional tension.

 This is a time when they can forget about the war, even if only for a short while. We teach them to cope with negative emotions.

In October and November, together with our partners in Ukraine and Poland, we organized two trips for 50 Ukrainian children and young people to Bialystok and Radom. During the trips, our children learned how to navigate space!

During the lesson, the children learned about the different types of ropes and their purposes, and learned how to navigate stairs and tight spaces. Particular attention was paid to accompanying a blind person, an important skill that teaches not only practical assistance but also compassion, mutual understanding, and respect for others.

The lessons were engaging and informative, and gave the children the opportunity to better understand the importance of supporting and caring for one another. There were many excursions and interesting meetings.

We are currently preparing for the winter holidays and want to give our children the gift of Christmas.

Thank you for joining us!

• Feedback_on_our_work.docx (DOCX)

Dear friends!
Thanks to your support, our organization was not only able to survive during the full-scale war in Ukraine, but also to work hard and bring benefit, to implement its mission to improve the quality of life of children and young people with severe visual impairments.
The "Humanitarian Aid Headquarters" of our organization constantly provides support to families raising children with disabilities. These are food packages, hygiene products, medicines, rehabilitation equipment, toys, clothes.
Spring and summer did not bring peace to Ukraine. Unfortunately, the situation in our country has become even worse. And children suffer from this first of all. We understand how important it is to give Ukrainian families raising children with severe visual impairments the opportunity to receive support from specialists.
To provide the necessary knowledge for the development and upbringing of children in such extreme conditions as war. Knowledge that will help them cope with difficulties and prevent children from stopping their development.
Thanks to the support of Global Given, we were able to organize an online school of parenting skills, where parents meet with specialists twice a week, listen to lectures, and get answers to questions that concern them. We organized a chat “Parental Universities” on the Telegram channel, where we post methodological materials for parents and specialists.
During the reporting period, we paid a lot of attention to supporting distance learning for blind children.
We paid the greatest attention to the preparation and printing of educational literature. For schoolchildren, we adapt textbooks according to the principles of universal design, which is very convenient for blind children who study in regular, comprehensive schools, their teachers and parents.
For teachers, we printed the methodological manuals “Mangold” and “Punktum”, aimed at teaching Braille.
The brochure “Hands for hugs” - psychological support for families raising children with disabilities.
The brochure “Your assistant in mastering Braille”. Forest rhymed alphabet is an alphabet that can be seen, heard and felt.
Thanks to the project, the following children's books were published:
– "Papa Reads" – frontline stories that opened a rich inner world through fairy tales!
The book's poems and fairy tales convey the pain of war,
the book teaches us to understand the true price of peace and independence, to cherish the memory of the Heroes!
"The Little Deceiver Mouse" is a psychological fairy tale, "Malyaka - Princess of Dragonia" is an adventure, "Smittyariki" is an ecological fairy tale, "Hello! I'm from Ukraine", "Nation Code. Embroidered Shirt".
We pay a lot of attention to psychological support for children and young people.
Together with our partners, we organize psychological trainings, fun leisure activities, and meetings of the "Reading Club" with children's writers.
We hold all events inclusively.
The holiday "Hello, Summer!" brought a lot of joy to both children and adults. It was a time when they could forget about the war, at least for a short time. More than 100 children received toys, books, and sweets as gifts.
At the moment, we are preparing for an inclusive project "The Path to Independence" for teenagers with severe visual impairments, which will be implemented in Bulgaria. The project volunteers will be sighted peers of the blind participants of the project. We are confident that their communication and joint leisure will help overcome negative stereotypes about blind people.