You're reading: ​In Kharkiv, a movement of solidarity to help children of war

Five million people are directly affected by Russia's war against Ukraine.

Among them, 1.7 million children, especially vulnerable, are exposed.

In Kharkiv Oblast, which welcomes the most refugees, states authorities, non-governmental organizations and volunteers try to assist them, assisted by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Nearly 21,000 children are officially documented as internally displaced people in Kharkiv Oblast, among the 182,000 refugees that have settled there, having fled the conflict zone, Roman Sheiko, field coordinator of UNICEF Ukraine in Kharkiv, told the Kyiv Post. Following the different waves of refugees, the population of the region has risen by nearly seven percent.

Some crucial fields, such as health or education, did not receive any additional money to assist and integrate all these newcomers, said Sheiko. As a consequence, the help coming from international organizations, such as the UNICEF, as well as from all the local volunteers has been most welcomed, and stays crucially needed.

In Kharkiv, volunteers spontaneously started to help the first refugees in the spring of 2014, buying food for them, or helping them to find a place for the night.

These volunteers progressively got organized. Following an appeal on Facebook, published on April 1, 2014, group of friends started to gather to help displaced people.

The organization they founded, Station Kharkiv, is now the main one helping the refugees and their children in Kharkiv Oblast, with 70 volunteers working there currently.

The atmosphere of the house in which they moved on July 21 their protection center is busy. Each room is occupied by several services of the humanitarian organization. Several desks with laptops, piles of documents and donated equipment stay in the middle of the way. At the entrance of the building, sat behind a table, a volunteer welcomes and orients the refugees to the different services of the organization. Three old refugees sit on a bench nearby, waiting, while other volunteers carry packages of humanitarian aid to the storage rooms of the first floor.

On the second floor, in the classroom of the center, seated at a round table, two children study their German lessons with a volunteer. Nadja Ryndina, the coordinator of Child program at Station Kharkiv, explains they were studying English in their school in Donetsk, but have to change the language for their new school. They have to learn the basics of German language before September.

A lot of displaced children meet difficulties at school, as they often could not attend lessons like their new classmates. Ryndina recalls the typical case of a girl who did not attend any class in Donetsk for three months as her school had been damaged by a shelling. After her arrival in Kharkiv, she fell sick for another three months period.

The organization also holds classes for their parents, to help them applying for vacancies or to deal with the psychological trauma their children face.

The children who arrive here for the first time are often close on themselves, and want to stay with their mother, keeping her hand or staying on her knees. Moving out of the conflict zone is a difficult experience for all these children.

It is only after a few days that that children start to play with the other children and to become communicative.

The newcomers and the most vulnerable refugees get packages of food from the organization, including baby food for the newborns. The nutrition of babies stays an important concern for the child protection organization, as many mothers refuse to breastfeed their children. Even when they want to, they may not be able of it because of the stress. On a table, some tracts from the UNICEF educate them to the benefits of breastfeeding.

Alongside the Ukrainian Red Cross, Station Kharkiv is the main partner of the UNICEF in Kharkiv Oblast.

The volunteers receive and distribute the humanitarian aid brought by the UN agency, consisting in hygiene and education kits. This year, five hundred and fifty hygiene kits and three thousand two hundred education kits have been distributed. “It is absolutely not enough,” deplores the field coordinator of UNICEF Ukraine in Kharkiv, Roman Sheiko. But the needs are so high that the state authorities and non-governmental organizations “are happy with any help,” he added further.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Station Kharkiv has helped over 90 000 refugees, including 9,975 children, providing them emergency assistance and humanitarian aid.

“We have to understand that emergency help is not the solving of the problem,” explained Sheiko. Integration and psychological support for the children and families stay key concerns, as many of them will stay in the Kharkiv region.

First a program launched in October 2014 by Station Kharkiv to facilitate this integration, Ukrainian Frontiers started working as an organization of its own last April. Their cultural and adaptation program includes different classes, activities and excursions.

These activities have a real positive impact on the children. Lena Dryutskaya, art teacher of the organization, recalled the story of a boy whose paintings were dark and sad, with only red and black colors. Following the art therapy classes, he started to use brighter colors, drawing pictures of dragonflies and birds with folded paper which impressed the teacher herself.

The displaced children are not the only ones attending these activities. Ukrainian frontiers indeed tries to erase the borders between the different groups explained Evgenia Levinshtein, office coordinator of the organization, to avoid the communitarisation of the refugees.

Even after fleeing the conflict zone children stay psychologically affected, with traumas coming from their precedent experiences. They may for instance show signs of stress and distress, and may have strong fears of loud sounds or sounds of airplanes.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yves Souben can be reached at [email protected]