The report can be downloaded here
12 professionals in the team
50+ psychologists
400 + volunteers from all over the word who are willing to help
8 locations where our psychologists work
Immediate humanitarian help
We help very different families – some turn to us for help on their own, to some people we offer our help if we see that they are not coping with the problem by themselves. These are the families that lost their fathers in the war, large families, and mothers with children who are unable to find work after relocation. We help individually, see what the needs are and what can improve the lives of children right now. With the help of our benefactors, we can do this for more families every month.
Alla Shyrshyna, the project manager of the fund
This month we:
- Coordinated the evacuation, including to foreign countries, of 26 families with children and helped evacuate and find accomodation for 11 more families from areas of active war zone.
- Assisted in relocating 23 families to more comfortable places of residence – sanatoriums, individual houses in villages, rooms in churches.
- Provided counseling services to 28 families to meet their post-relocation needs.
- Distributed one-time financial assistance to more than 50 families that made a total of almost UAH 200,000. These are the families the fund is taking care of. They have been living in the conditions of the war for the last 8 years in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and have now lost almost everything. These are also families from Mariupol, Borodyanka, Chernihiv and Kyiv oblasts who were left without means of subsistence, whose homes were bombed; and parents raising children with disabilities.
- Sent humanitarian aid to the Kherson region in amount of UAH 90,000, purchasing basic necessities and stationery for children.
- Continue to care for IDPs in Truskavets where hundreds of children live in temporary shelters with their families. This month we coordinated the purchase of products for UAH 37,000, and also ordered furniture for the needs of migrants (50 bedside tables, 50 beds and 20 cabinets) for UAH 309,000.
- Ensured the transfer of 2.4 tons of humanitarian aid (food and hygiene products) from abroad and across Ukraine (from Germany to Lviv, from Lviv to Odessa, from Kyiv to Truskavets, from Ternopil to the region) for 44 families.
- Provided assistance at the request of individual families. Bed linen, diapers and nappies for children with disabilities, a cot, etc. were purchased for 40,000 hryvnias. We also bought tablets and headphones for our wards Bohdan and Kostya. In 2014, after the shelling of the house, Bogdan was injured and then there was a long rehabilitation. This year the family had to flee the war again. Now Bohdan is studying with private tutors in Zakarpattia and is very glad that he has everything he needs to do this. Kostya is also from the damaged Avdiivka, Donetsk region, where he has been living in a war zone for the last eight years and the boy also has health problems.
- Made the lives of 27 adults and children from eastern Ukraine easier. They currently live in a kindergarten and now have a washing machine.
In total, UAH 470,000 were spent on humanitarian help.
Psychological support
It seems to us that war is necessarily the fear of explosions, the fear of seeing people with machine guns. But most of the worrying experiences during the war are due to the fact that many children lost the world they had before the war. And this longing for their childhood as it used to be is very strong. And that’s why there are so many children who need help.
Lena Rozvadovska, CEO of «The Voices of Children» Foundation
This month we:
- Continued to conduct individual and group psychological sessions with children and parents at 8 locations in different parts of Ukraine: in Lviv, Dublyany, Vynnyky, Kamyanets-Podilsky, Truskavets, Skhidnytsia, Poltava, Berehove. In total, we conducted 73 group sessions and 77 individual psychological consultations. In total, we provided assistance to 198 children (continuing support, at least ten sessions for each child) and 52 parents.
- Psychologists consulted more than 100 children through the toll-free telephone hotline and the “We Are Nearby” psychological help chatbot, which is realized together with the NaUKMA Center.
- During the month, the foundation organized art therapy classes for children with disabilities. In Truskavets, we involved in the sessions more than 50 children from families who moved from the war zone.
- For the meetings with children, group classes and leisure, we purchased poufs, materials for creativity and products worth 32,000 hryvnias.
Constantly learned and taught:
- For psychologists, social workers and volunteers we conducted a 14-hour training “Children and War. Training on Healing Techniques” (13 people) and organized a 5-hour online training on crisis counseling (27 people).
- Specialists of our fund were trained to use the CRM system for the program of psychological support for children and parents, which is created with the support of the Global Fund for Children.
- Our psychologists also had the opportunity to talk to art therapist Nicole Willcox, founder of the California Center for work with Trauma. The seminar was devoted to communication methods that help parents and children to better survive the pain of war.
- Olena Rozvadovska, the founder of the foundation, also gave useful advice on talking to children about the dangers in the occupied and liberated territories. You can read more about this here https://voices.org.ua/news/znannia-iaki-riatuiut-zhyttia/
Psychologist Anna Kolisnychenko spoke about ways of psychological assistance in the event of the death of a loved one – https://voices.org.ua/news/yak-pidtrymaty-liudynu-iaka-stala-svidkom-smerti-blyzkoho/
Together with our partners from Sincere Heart Charitable Foundation we held one-day camps near Lviv to distract children from their experiences and give parents, especially those with many children, a little rest. There were quests, sports competitions, various workshops and creative competitions, thanks to which children could have fun and communicate with each other. In total, 10 camps were held and more than 300 children participated there.
And on May 21 and 22 in Lviv and Skhidnytsia a famous British artist Charles Uzzell Edwards visited our wards. This is thanks to RedKite volunteers who help countries overcome humanitarian crises and support people who have been forced to relocate due to world wars and conflicts. About 60 children took part in 2 workshops on drawing big pictures together. As a result, a special NFT for sale will be created and a part of the funds will go to «The Voices of Children».
We take special care of children in state care. Therefore, we continue to provide psychological assistance to the students of the Lysychansk Center of Social and Psychological Rehabilitation for Children and we have organized an excursion to the retro garage. The boys had a chance to turn the nuts of retro cars, motorcycles and bicycles, and the girls turned into policewomen, sitting in a police retro car. And for our wards from family-type orphanages we arranged an excursion to the football academy of FC “RUKH”(Ukrainian for ‘Movement’). The twins Roman and Oleg, who have been dreaming of football careers all their lives and played in the Luhansk region’s national team before the full-scale Russian attack, were especially happy about it.
In total, UAH 930,000 were spent on psychological help.
Rehabilitation support
Thanks to the help of our philanthropists, 24 children with disabilities, accompanied by their parents, received a two-week rehabilitation course at one of the best rehabilitation centers in Ukraine in Lviv region. An individual rehabilitation plan was selected for each child.
These are families with children from Kharkiv, Kherson, Volnovakha, Severodonetsk, Mykolayiv, Mariupol and other cities, who lost the opportunity to return home in one night. Active combat goes on in their cities and villages. At home, they have no chance for the qualified professional help.
Thank you for giving these children a chance for a better childhood!
This is 7-year-old Andriyko from Zaporizhia region, who was rehabilitated at the clinic. His mother Victoria shared their story and impressions of the rehabilitation: “We have our own house and we made a room where we hid with our two children. One of my children, Andriychyk, has a disability. When the windows began to shake, the children said they were scared. I realized that I had to go while there was such an opportunity. We couldn’t get on the train due to the crowd, so we drove to Lviv region. We did not have time to draw up some documents for the child. First because of the coronavirus, and then because of the war.
Arriving in Lviv, we went to see a child psychiatrist Natalia Masyak. She immediately realized the need for rehabilitation and said that there is a foundation that can include us into the program. I am extremely happy about this, because we already have the results. My child began to go down the stairs without my help; earlier he could go himself only upstairs; to go down he had to take my hand. For me, this is progress and it’s very cool. And that’s only after the first five days at the clinic. Unfortunately, many children with disabilities are now experiencing a behavior setback because of stress. My son knows the word “war”, he knows that there is bombing, he knows who attacked us. I still hope that everything will be fine.” You can see more about Andriyko here
This month UAH 539,000 were spent on the program.
Our Supporters
This month is special for the Voices of Children, as more and more people around the world trust us. It incredibly supports our work and gives us the strength to work almost without days off!
Thus, in May, the world-famous singer Madonna helped us raise funds. During the year, she and the famous NFT artist Beeple created the triptych project “Mother of Creation”. These are 3 short videos that were sold at auction. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to 3 charities in the world, one of which is the Voices of Children! The singer talked about us and the work of our foundation on her social networks, on the website and in interviews.
“I can’t tell you how much I cried thinking about women and children in Ukraine who are separated from each other, who are separated from their parents and brothers. I can’t imagine losing a child or being separated from children. And Ukrainians have lost their relatives, they have lost their homes, they live on the border. That’s why it was important for me to choose an organization that could effectively help these people,” Madonna said.
We were also supported by the wonderful actor, director and producer Ben Feldman, the unique artist and author of collages in the field of cryptoarts Lapin mignon, famous fashion photographer Yelena Yemchyk, talented designer Anton Belinskiy, famous artist Tahnee Lonsdale and many others.
We are also being talked about in the European Parliament in Brussels thanks to the Member of Parliament Catharina Rinzema, who is constantly helping our Foundation not only financially, but also by drawing attention to the war in Ukraine. Facebook posts, the involvement of members of the European Parliament, a large crowdfunding campaign for the “Voices” – all this is her merit!
Every day, good people from Ukraine and around the world contact us and offer their help – they transfer money, become our volunteers, send humanitarian aid and spread information about our activities and opportunities to join it.
We are grateful to everyone for helping Ukraine and the children of war! We thank everyone who joins initiatives for support! When we are together, we are truly invincible! For the light always overcomes darkness, and our voices of good will surely overcome evil and injustice!
Our plans for the future
- Develop our centers and arrange the new ones. The closest to the opening are locations in Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk.
- Provide individual support to families in need: help evacuate, buy essentials, help in solving health problems, etc.
- Buy or renovate homes in the west of Ukraine for internally displaced families with children who lost their dwelling, unable to purchase one or unable to return home.
- Create and share expert materials on the psychological support of children facing war.
About us in Ukraine and in the world
The voices of children and families from Ukraine are heard all over the world. They sound loudly thanks to foreign and Ukrainian media that cover events in our country.
Here is a list of foreign portals that most actively support our Foundation and the children of Ukraine:
📍 Sky News – the British television news channel, which was named the best news channel at the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards in June, 2007. And in 2019, Sky News became the news channel of the year of the Royal Television Society.
Ukraine war: The talking, tears and TikTok therapy of the conflict’s broken children https://cutt.ly/8HRWJva
📍ABC News – American TV news channel of American Broadcasting Company. ABC News is now part of The Walt Disney Company. This news portal writes about us in New York from Times Square.
Voices of Children provides psychological assistance to Ukrainian children https://cutt.ly/ZHRW9HC
📍 Unobravo – Servizio di psicologia online – an online psychological service that provides online psychological therapy with more than 2,000 professionals. And now it is actively supporting our Foundation, covering the situation in Ukraine
Bambini e famiglie vittime di guerra: Unobravo per Voices of Children https://cutt.ly/kHREqEC
📍Marie Claire – international magazine, which was named the Best Women’s Fashion Magazine by the Australian Magazine Awards (AMA) in 2009.
How You Can Help the People of Ukraine https://cutt.ly/zHREuaT
📍 Esquire – a magazine that has established itself as an American force for fashion and culture. Now it is gaining popularity in 28 countries!
How to Help People in Ukraine Right Now https://cutt.ly/iHREfTg
📍 ZDF heute – one of the most famous television companies in Germany, known in many parts of the world NANO vom 5. April 2022: Ukraine – Das Leid der Kinder https://cutt.ly/aHREEHi
The most interesting materials about us this month abroad and in Ukraine:
- “Children have a high surge of desire for “ours” to win”, – the founder of the Voices of Children Foundation
https://ukrainian.voanews.com/a/6554081.html
- Funds to support the children of Ukraine. Madonna and artist Beeple created the NFT charity collection
- American schoolchildren raise money for the Voices of Children Foundation, which helps Ukrainian children
- Children of War Foundation headed to Ukraine to help those in need
https://ktla.com/video/children-of-war-foundation-headed-to-ukraine-to-help-those-in-need/7498958/
- PEJAC. SO FAR, SO CLOSE: CHARITY AUCTION FOR “VOICES OF CHILDREN” AND “ACTED”
On the 13th and 15th of May, the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival in Warsaw hosted a screening of A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lehren Wilson. This film is about children from difficult families who has got into the orphanage near the war area. This is a joint project of Denmark, Ukraine and Sweden, which was filmed 2.5 years ago. The Foundation helped with the filming and provided psychological support to the children who took part in the filming. Now the film is already on the shortlist for the 2023 Oscars.
The two main characters of the film – educators Margaryta Mykolayivna and Olga Viktorivna survived the occupation in Lysychansk in 2014. And now, after the film is over, they have been forced to leave their homes due to the devastating shelling of the Russians. For many years, these educators provided support, warmth and support to the children in the orphanage. They attended the premiere of the film together with Olena Rozvadovska, the founder of the Foundation. You can read more about the film and how it was shot here:
Thank you all for supporting the Foundation, for covering its activities and drawing attention to the needs of children suffering from the war!