There is not a single person in Ukraine who has not suffered from the war and its consequences. Our children are especially deeply traumatized, whom the war deprived them of a normal childhood, a sense of security, the opportunity to develop, and often left them without relatives, homes and health.
This is well understood by the founders of the Future for Ukraine Foundation — ten Ukrainian women forced to flee the war. Already abroad, they decided to direct all efforts and pains, love and hatred to help their country. In just a month, they “overcame” foreign bureaucracy and help children, no matter what, to remain children.
“War. How do our children see it? What do they think about when they are awakened at night and, wrapped in a blanket, lowered into the basement of the house, parking lot or the nearest metro station? How do they feel when they have to leave all their books, toys, things, say goodbye to their strong and reliable dad and run away somewhere into the unknown in an anxious hurry in the morning? - He speaks co-founder and vice-president of FFU Elena Sotnikbecause I am sure that children suffer the most.
The Future for Ukraine Foundation organized an exhibition of children’s drawings “Children. War. Future”. The opening took place at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti metro station, and the exposition was installed in the upper lobby of the Golden Gate station. Part of the work was provided by the charity project “Mom, I see war”, which collects drawings for a digital museum.
The idea of the exhibition arose when the FFU team visited orphans from orphanages in Lviv and the region - children’s care institutions were evacuated to Western Ukraine from regions where active hostilities were taking place. The FFU team handed over humanitarian aid, things, toys and art materials to the children, offering them to depict the future and how they see today’s events.
“The exhibition presents three hundred children’s drawings, which reflect the experiences of our children, who see the horrors of war with their own eyes, - Elena Sotnik tells about the exposition. - Children depict death, explosions, fear, bomb shelters, blood, horror. The junior artist is 5 years old. There are sketches of 8-year-old Dasha from temporarily occupied Kherson and 11-year-old Dasha from Mariupol, which at that time more or less survived. The drawings reflect all the horrors of the war: the rape in Bucha was drawn by Masha from Odessa, the deadly sowing was depicted by Valeria, Ivanka made a story about Russian soldiers destroying a maternity hospital.
Elena Sotnyk, a human rights activist with extensive experience, insists that all Ukrainian children should receive the status of “children of war” and comprehensive assistance from the world community.
“Children cannot be fooled. They see everything, understand everything and know who is a good hero in a story and who is evil. Today children are witnesses of Russian crimes in Ukraine, The centurion continues. - With the exhibition we want to involve children in the problems. Due to abnormal stress, many need medical and psychological help. In children, sleep disturbances, enuresis, cases of uncontrolled aggression, or, on the contrary, detachment and apathy, have been recorded.
Elena Sotnik also says: “We must now begin to look differently at education, psychological support for children and their parents, create islands of stability and help them survive these terrible times, give them moments of peace, relaxation and faith in the future.”
The Future for Ukraine team gathers volunteers, public organizations and specialists from all over the world to help Ukrainians in need: the military and the wounded as a result of hostilities, children and their families abroad, and internally displaced persons.
Among the cases are individual first-aid kits for the IFAK military, the installation of metal osteofixation systems for patients with fractures (27 operations have already been performed).
The Foundation began cooperation with the American Rochester Regional Health Foundations and the RocMaidan organization, created by the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States. As a result, foundations improve logistics and can distribute charitable contributions from America more efficiently. The foundation also receives humanitarian aid from Japan, Poland, Portugal and other European countries.
In June, Future for Ukraine launched two large projects at once - the Humanitarian Center in Kyiv and the Children Hub in Warsaw.
The Kyiv team of the foundation, together with volunteers, accepts, forms and publishes humanitarian kits for displaced persons. These are entire families who, because of the war, were forced to flee to Kyiv, lost their homes and jobs. Unfortunately, in the first days after the opening of the headquarters, the team discovered that there were a lot of such people. In test mode, we had to process hundreds of requests day and night from people who need basic things - food and hygiene products.
Children Hub in Poland, the FFU team decided to open to help evacuated children and their mothers with adaptation in a new country. It is this country that takes the main burden from the flow of refugees from Ukraine. Of course, the Polish infrastructure was not ready for such challenges. Little visitors are already coming to the hub to play, chat with a psychologist and peers, take a break from the language barrier, and their mothers have several hours a day to do important things. Soon the fund is preparing to open a second hub, large and spacious, to meet a large request.
Elena Sotnik and the FFU team in this difficult time urge to find motivation in children, to help them overcome traumas and justify their hopes. After all, children are our future. “Our children are watching us. They are confident that we know how to behave and we can stop this war. They believe in us. We have no right to disappoint them and miss.”
Source: Fakty
