Over 280 kind Kiwis sent a message of hope to children affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Watch how your message gave children in Ukraine a reason to smile.
Our team on the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine hand-delivered your caring message to children at one of our Digital Learning Centres. Thank you for letting these children know they are seen, valued and not forgotten. Thank you for delivering hope!
“Dear children, I want you to know that you have not been forgotten.”
After 15 months of full-scale war, thousands of children and their families are still being forced underground to bunkers while violence and shelling continue. Never-ending air strikes and explosions are destroying buildings, killing and injuring children, and making it almost impossible for people to access essential healthcare services like hospitals. The war in Ukraine has taken over children’s lives.
Millions of children in Ukraine are suffering from the trauma and fear of war. Every day brings more air strikes and bombings. Children have to quickly hide in underground shelters, rather than playing hide-and-seek.
Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Ukraine Country Director, said: “Every child in Ukraine – and there are 7.5 million of them – has been affected by this war. Children have fled brutal fighting and spent months in shelters hiding from missiles and shelling. They have seen their homes destroyed and loved ones hurt. Many have been forcibly separated from their families and have become victims of assault themselves.”
Save the Children representative Kateryna shows the Messages of hope sent from different Countries to the children in Ukraine
“You are special and the entire world is thinking of you.”
Earlier this year, we invited our supporters to write a message of hope to children in Ukraine. Thousands of amazing people from countries across the world including New Zealand, the United States, Mexico, Canada, France, Portugal, Vietnam, Ireland, Singapore and Taiwan wrote to children, letting them know they were thinking of them and that they were not forgotten.
Our teams translated these messages into Ukrainian and delivered them to one of our Digital Learning Centres in Kyiv, where families lived through weeks of brutal hostilities in the early stages of war.
And wow, what an impact your message has had! “I really liked that in such a challenging time, other children and adults worry about us. When I read the letter, I thought I was going to cry’, 11-year-old Serhiy* told us.
Valentyn*, 17, said, “When I read these letters, I felt a kind of warmth in my soul. It feels so nice when someone cares about you and supports you.”
That’s a feeling that every child deserves to have, so thank you for giving children in Ukraine a reason to smile and hope!
As you can see, the simple action of letting children know you’re thinking of them does wonders for them. And yet, they still need our support in every possible way as the ongoing war has pushed more than half of families in Ukraine to the brink of survival.
Sonia Khush said, “This war is wearing everybody down, but for aid organisations like Save the Children, there is no room to back down. The world must step up so and strengthen its support for the most vulnerable human beings in Ukraine.”
Karolina 17 receives a message of hope from Save the Children representative Kateryna
Our Work in Ukraine
The situation in Ukraine remains dire for children, as we pass the one-year mark since the war broke out in February 2022. Almost two-thirds of children were forced to flee their homes in the first 100 days of war.
We’ve scaled up our response across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Lithuania. We’re providing life-saving aid like food and water, and cash vouchers. We’ve also set up safe spaces to make sure children and families impacted by this crisis have the support they need, as we have been doing since conflict began in 2014.
If you’d like to go one step further, please consider donating to our Children’s Emergency Fund to protect and support children whose lives have been torn apart by conflict.
By making a donation to the Children’s Emergency Fund you will help desperate, scared children and their families caught up in humanitarian crises. Wherever innocent children’s lives and wellbeing are threatened by conflict, disaster, or disease, your gift will ensure we can be there to support and protect them.
