Help Ukraine's refugees to make a new start

Dear friends, thank you for your support!

The scale of our project is growing, there are more and more requests through social networks. Our database of beneficiaries expanded to more than 1000 IDPs and refugees. Due to the aggravation of the situation in the country, families are increasingly forced to seek support and assistance because of difficult living conditions. Families are left without breadwinners, without work, without a livelihood. We respond to every request, providing not only humanitarian and financial assistance but also integration assistance: we meet, communicate, go shopping together, and help with purchases.

One such request we received from Anna, mother of 5 children. There is no work nearby. The whole family goes to the forest, preparing firewood for the winter. Their father moonlighted in rural areas, but now as Anna stays in a hospital, he has to be with the kids at home. The family was very grateful for the financial help from our organization, which they could use to buy food.

Another family with five children became hostages of the war. Living in the occupied territory, they found themselves without a livelihood - there is no way to buy either cereals or bread. Mother Elena does not have milk for her eight-month-old baby, so there is an urgent need for baby food. Our organization sent them money, as parcels do not reach the occupied territories.

Following the requests of several families, we sent them heaters as it is very cold in their homes.

Throughout the month of September, we continued to receive requests for help by the beginning of the school year: stationery for children, clothes, and shoes. First of all, we bought shoes for children with disabilities, from large families and IDP families. Children from the families of the deceased soldiers, as well as internally displaced children received stationery sets.

Celebrating International Day of Peace, we conducted a number of cultural and rehabilitation programs for more than 300 Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Germany. Participants could share their stories, tell about their experiences and get support, as well as take part in various master classes, taste traditional Ukrainian food, enjoy performances and receive gifts.

We continue to conduct art therapy sessions with children on a regular basis. Winter has come and cold weather is ahead.
In October and November Ukraine was subjected to massive missile attacks, mainly on infrastructure and residential buildings. As a result about half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure was damaged, causing blackouts across the country. The government of Ukraine has asked all citizens to be prepared for an outage of electricity, water and heat.

People who are staying in the country experience constant blackouts, many times for a whole day, and because of this lack of heat, food shortages, and communication problems.

To help our beneficiaries overcome blackouts challenges we are preparing relevant Christmas gifts for them - warm blankets, thermal underwear, power banks, food, medicine, hygiene products, and generators.

All this becomes possible thanks to your help and your kind hearts! We are grateful for your support and for every donation you make.

Links:

• Family art workshop

Our dear friends, we would like to share updates on our project. 

The summer was extremely busy with giving targeted aid to IDP families and helping our beneficiaries in many ways.  

In July in cooperation with the All-Ukrainian newspaper "Family Times» we provided assistance to 20 families raising children with disabilities, as well as elderly people with disabilities who cannot leave Kyiv. Volunteers organized the purchase and delivery of food packages, including meat, canned food, cereals, dairy products, fruits and sweets. Each set also had copies of the newspaper from the partners. Some families shared that they were hiding and living in basements because of frequent air raid sirens. It is difficult for the less mobile groups of the population to quickly respond to them while staying at home.

And we answered to the call of a family from the city of Chernihiv, that suffered from bombings. Along with Sumy, Chernihiv played an important role in the beginning of the war, having taken the brunt of the attack and protecting the capital from a large number of enemy forces. Chernihiv was heavily bombarded from the first days of the war. And as many other families, our beneficiary family, having the child suffering from cerebral palsy, was forced to spend the nights in the basement during the shelling. The family even shares the "skill" of distinguishing shells exploding nearby by their sound. Their apartment survived, but all the windows were blown out by the blast wave. The family was able to repair only one window on their own. WFWP volunteers provided support and organized the repair of all windows. 

And as on August 24 Ukraine celebrated its Independence, WFWP-Ukraine organized a few online art-therapy workshops on Ukrainian state and national symbols. More than 20 children from different parts of Ukraine, as well as from other countries where they were forced to stay as a result of the war, were listening to a presentation about Ukrainian national and national symbols, drawing them and and making the Ukrainian flag using paper techniques.

The parental house, protected by a stork, viburnum and willow, golden fields, hot pancakes in a frying pan, and of course, the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine - these symbols of the homeland are especially dear to children's hearts. They dream of returning home soon and living in a peaceful world.

We are grateful, our dear friends, for your continued support. And as we just started the new academic year, we will be happy to share about it very soon, in our next report! All the best to you and your families!

Links:

• Art-therapy on Independence Day
• Food packages for families in need
• New windows for family in Chernihiv