Supporting the Children of Ukraine – US Embassy & Consulates in Italy
Sophia, 16, was in physics class in Kharkiv when Russia began bombing the city in February 2022. As the bombing increased in the days that followed, Sophia was forced to travel to a town in western Ukraine.
Months later, she learned that her childhood home had been destroyed. “There is nothing but stones,” she said (PDF, 7 MB).
Sophia is one of more than 614,000 Ukrainian children helped by the US-based nonprofit Save the Children.
Save the Children estimates that Russia’s war kills or injures four children in Ukraine every day.
A number of US non-profit organizations support the children of Ukraine.
The need is great. In addition to the bomb threat, Russia has separated thousands of Ukrainian children from their families, guardians and caregivers and placed them in institutions where they are exposed to a Russia-aligned curriculum. While some children eventually return from these “re-education” camps, many do not, and the status of hundreds of children is unknown.
Improving the well-being of children
Denver-based charity Children of Heroes provided Andriy, a student from Mariupol, with food, clothing, medical supplies and a laptop to continue his English studies. Andriy’s father was killed in a bomb attack. The family home was destroyed.
These stories are anything but unique. Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine has traumatized thousands of children.
Nataliya Vyetrova is from Ukraine and moved to the United States in 2019. She established the Ukraine Volya Foundation in June 2022 to help Ukrainian children cope with war-related trauma.
The Washington-based organization hires clinical psychologists who use games, art, talk therapy and other tools. “Our organization deeply believes that one of the best things we can do for Ukraine’s future is to help children,” she said.
Raising awareness through art
Several US galleries held fundraisers:
Artist Wojtek Sawa, an immigrant who came to the United States from Poland when he was 11, organized an exhibition of Ukrainian children’s work in Sarasota, Florida. “I felt that Ukrainian children need to know what the world cares about and how we treat them will be how they see the world.”
As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, so does the need. See what the United States is doing to help the people of Ukraine.
