AMCFU provides assistance to displaced orphans in Ukraine
Bohdan BurkoNearly three months after the Russian offensive in Ukraine, more than a third of the country’s population has had to leave their homes to escape the fighting, bombings, or occupation by Russian troops. In addition to the 8 million refugees who have left Ukrainian territory, nearly 8 million people have become internally displaced, finding refuge in areas of Ukraine farther from the front lines. Among these internally displaced people, children housed in orphanages and specialized education homes are among the most vulnerable and most affected.
The needs of these children are many, both in terms of material support and psychological assistance. To help care for them, in recent weeks, AMCFU has organized five distributions of clothing to children from orphanages and specialized education homes evacuated from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Odessa, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv.
Additionally, to supplement the often limited resources available for their psychological support, the association organized the first art therapy sessions for 77 children.
Before the Russian offensive last February, AMCFU had undertaken charitable and cultural projects for the benefit of children in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, near the contact line between Ukrainian forces and separatists. Performances, theater, gift distributions for Saint Nicholas Day, art and traditional painting workshops—these activities helped establish connections with local partners—administrations, schools, sponsoring companies, and artists—and, most importantly, develop an approach that is now being applied in the regions hosting these displaced orphans.
The association is leveraging these recent projects to study the most effective ways to complement the efforts of local administrations and actors and will continue to develop its charitable projects in the coming weeks.
