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The Foundation's team
A papier-mâché airplane that helped raise UAH 1.6 million through a campaign launched by a child who received support from the Foundation. Nearly €900,000 raised by a Dutch journalist who first learned about our work through the media. Behind every psychological session for a child from Poltava lies a chain of efforts coming together.
Someone has to find a partner willing to fund the work of a regional center. Someone else has to write the post that the partner will read and decide to support. And someone has to make sure that the child and their family learn that this support is available.
Someone has to find a partner willing to fund the work of a regional center. Someone else has to write the post that the partner will read and decide to support. And someone has to make sure that the child and their family learn that this support is available.
Teenagers met with Nataliia and Oleksii from the Partnerships Department, who secure business funding for Voices of Children programs, as well as with Dmytro Romashko, who leads the Foundation’s communications.
The two conversations about how partners find their way to the Foundation, how to talk about children on social media without causing harm, and why fundraising and communications can only be effective when working together were conducted by Dariia Larionova, 16 years old, from Melitopol/Zaporizhzhia, and Yelyzaveta Zakharchenko, 18 years old, from the Kyiv region.
The two conversations about how partners find their way to the Foundation, how to talk about children on social media without causing harm, and why fundraising and communications can only be effective when working together were conducted by Dariia Larionova, 16 years old, from Melitopol/Zaporizhzhia, and Yelyzaveta Zakharchenko, 18 years old, from the Kyiv region.
How the Foundation Engages Partners: Awareness, Trust, Action
- How do new partners find their way to you?
Nataliia: Over the years, we have built a large community of friends and partners. Some reach out on their own after learning about the Foundation through the media and contacting us directly. Others are involved through initiatives and campaigns that we develop ourselves.
For me, three things are essential in the work of the Partnerships Department: awareness, trust, and action. At first, partners learn about us and study our work in detail. When they start trusting us — considering the scale of the help we provide, our transparency, regular reporting, annual audits, and the stories of the children we have supported — action follows. This means partners are ready to donate and to create positive change in children’s lives together with us.
- How difficult is it to find partners today?
Oleksii: Partnerships and fundraising are far from easy. We often find ourselves navigating complex bureaucracy because every partner is different, and we need to adapt, both in communication and in administrative processes. The landscape is highly dynamic and constantly changing. In 2022, the challenge was finding ways to use funding effectively. Today, the challenge is finding funding to bring those ideas to life.
When we begin working with a partner, it is also important that our values align.
Today, supporting the military is a top priority, and rightly so. But the future also belongs to children, who will one day become adults. If we turn away from children now, then everything our soldiers have sacrificed will have been in vain.
- Why is it important to talk publicly about the Foundation’s work?
Oleksii: You can do a lot of great work, but if nobody knows about it, it becomes much harder to raise funds for future projects. A telling example is our partner, the Dutch journalist Patrick Haar. He was inspired by what we do after seeing information about us in the media and began sharing it with Dutch audiences. He managed to raise €900,000 to support Ukrainian humanitarian organizations, including Voices of Children.
- What does your day-to-day work look like?
Nataliia: You are constantly combining, adjusting, and putting different pieces together to meet the Foundation’s current needs. There is never a situation where someone simply comes along and funds all of our programs at once. That means we are always multitasking and finding creative solutions, balancing donor opportunities with our own capacity to make something truly meaningful happen.
Sofiia’s Aircraft Model: How One Idea Turned Into UAH 1.6 Million
- Can you share a story that stood out to you this year?
Nataliia: Sofiia is a girl who moved from Kyiv to Switzerland after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. There, she faced the challenge of adapting to life in a new country and turned to the Foundation for psychological support.
Later, as part of a school project, Sofiia created a papier-mâché model of the AN-225 Mriya, the aircraft destroyed by Russian forces in 2022. Together with the Foundation, she launched a large-scale fundraiser to support Ukrainian children. The initiative was joined by SkyUp Airlines, the jewelry brand Kochut, the charity shop Laska, the Ukrainian clothing brand Aviatsiya Halychyny, and the video game publisher Ubisoft. The model itself was later exhibited at the State Aviation Museum in Kyiv.
The Antonov Company team also learned about Sofiia’s story and supported her initiative through gifts and communications support. The company even presented Sofiia with a miniature model of the AN-225 as a token of appreciation for her efforts. A special guest at the press conference was Dmytro Antonov, the pilot who flew the real Mriya aircraft for twenty years.
The original fundraising goal was UAH 500,000, but the campaign raised several times that amount — UAH 1.6 million. A significant contribution came from the American organization Jamestown Relief Project.
The Antonov Company team also learned about Sofiia’s story and supported her initiative through gifts and communications support. The company even presented Sofiia with a miniature model of the AN-225 as a token of appreciation for her efforts. A special guest at the press conference was Dmytro Antonov, the pilot who flew the real Mriya aircraft for twenty years.
The original fundraising goal was UAH 500,000, but the campaign raised several times that amount — UAH 1.6 million. A significant contribution came from the American organization Jamestown Relief Project.
- Who else among the Foundation’s friends led major fundraising efforts this year?
Oleksii: Artur Dron is a well-known poet, veteran, and a good friend of Voices of Children. Together with The Old Lion Publishing House, he donates all proceeds from his poetry collection, We Were Here, to support children through the Foundation. Through royalties, book sales, translation rights, and charity events, Artur Dron has already raised more than UAH 1.7 million for children affected by the war (by the time this interview was published, the amount had already exceeded UAH 2 million). He also regularly organizes his own fundraising campaigns and public events.
In 2025, together with Artur and the participants of our poetry lab with elements of art therapy, we held a major event at the Ivan Franko Theater in Kyiv. The program featured The Most Important Spice in Life, a performance created by students from a Lviv school based on poems by Artur Dron and poet Andrii Hudyma, as well as a joint poetry reading with teenagers. Admission was by donation, and the event raised nearly UAH 202,000 to support children.
The Challenge of 2026: Funding the Childhood Center
- What is the biggest challenge awaiting you next year?
Nataliia: The main challenge for the Partnerships Department in 2026 is securing funding for the construction of the Childhood Center. This is a large-scale and costly project in the Kyiv region that will have nationwide significance. Fundraising for something that is still being built comes with its own challenges and added complexity.
I would also like to emphasize the importance of building a community of responsible adults. Today, people are most likely to donate to causes connected to someone they know personally. They respond to personal fundraising efforts. That is why, if you choose to support this work, it is important to tell your friends and community who you are helping, why it matters, and why you trust the people involved. This is the only way we can organically grow an ecosystem of people committed to supporting children.
SMM and Communications: One Word That Defines Our Work Is “Informing”
- If you had to describe your work in one word, what would it be?
Dmytro: For me, it would be informing. We inform children and families about our work. We inform donors about what we do. Everything is connected: without communication, no one would know that a foundation like ours exists or that it needs support. And those who need help would not know that we are here to provide it.
- What does a typical workday look like for you?
Dmytro: We come to the office and talk :). We have a huge number of projects and responsibilities. Every day, we juggle information to make sure everything we create is useful, engaging, and of high quality. Even reporting on the support we provide can be done in different ways. For example, saying, “We thank so-and-so for donating these items...” is not particularly interesting to anyone.
We try to tell every thank-you story, every update, through a human story or through content that people genuinely care about.
Every working day is about finding balance — combining responsibilities with creativity and empathy so that our work does not become just numbers and photographs. Behind every publication are real people and the stories of those around us. That is why maintaining ethical standards in communication is such an important part of the process.
Ethics and Reach on Social Media
- What is the most difficult part of working online?
Dmytro: I am about to get to what is probably my biggest pain point. We all know that when something terrible happens, social media quickly fills up with graphic and distressing images. That is a natural reaction to tragedy. But at the Foundation, we have a rule not to do that, because it can retraumatize those who have been affected and their loved ones.
We never publish photographs of people who have died, nor do we share any specific details about them. Content like that often receives fewer views, fewer likes, and fewer shares. But in the long run, people thank us for taking an ethical approach.
Every day, we try to do as much as we can while staying true to the principles we value so highly. After all, everything we publish remains online forever. It is important to ask ourselves whether a particular post about a child or a family will still feel respectful and appropriate one year or five years from now.
- Which of your projects resonated most strongly with audiences this year?
Dmytro: One of the most widely shared stories at the beginning of the year involved a girl from Bila Tserkva who had been subjected to bullying. Everyone was posting her photograph, and her face was clearly visible.
Raising awareness about wrongdoing is important, but we must always consider whether sharing personal details and photographs could cause further harm to the child involved.
A few days later, we published a post explaining why this approach is inappropriate. In situations like this, faces should always be blurred so that a person cannot be identified. Again, this comes down to ethics. We cannot stay silent about bullying, and we must continue to fight it. At the same time, it is crucial to protect the anonymity of those who have been harmed, because everything remains online. The post reached a very large audience, and we were encouraged to see people begin to listen and reflect on the issue.
“We Want the World to Know: We Are Living Through a War, but We Are Not Victims”
- What would you like to change or improve in your work next year?
Dmytro: I often think about something Olena Rozvadovska says: next year, we will need twice as much of everything — twice as many regional centers, camps, and art labs. What seemed difficult a year ago has now become experience that helps us move forward every day.
We continue to tell the world that Ukraine is at war, but we do not want to be seen as victims. We are a free country. At the same time, the support of people around the world will help shape what comes next, how the story unfolds, and how this war that has already affected the world will continue. The work we do every day has implications far beyond Ukraine. Many people already understand this, but some do not yet. That is why we want to keep expanding those circles of understanding.
The War Continues, and Even More Children Need Our Support.
We believe that a happy and prosperous post-war Ukraine begins today, with children who can grow up without carrying the burden of their wartime experiences. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, together with our donors and partners, we have supported more than 162,000 children and their parents. To continue this work and reach even more families, we need your support.
You can make a donation in any way that is convenient for you, become a monthly donor, or help by sharing information about our work with others.
You can make a donation in any way that is convenient for you, become a monthly donor, or help by sharing information about our work with others.
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