"The children stay in the security bunkers for most of the day"

The town of Popasna, at the contact line in Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, is under siege. Residents are reported to be safe and unharmed, however no supplies can be moved into the town. Prior to the siege, 15 persons (children and foster parents) managed to leave Popasna and found accommodation in Sievierodonetsk.

They’ve reached out to SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine who immediately began providing them with supplies and psychological help. These foster families were not part of any programme of SOS Children’s Villages until now.

All other children and families, as well as staff of SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine are safe and unharmed. The staff in some areas of Kyiv are almost constantly staying in bomb shelters, which is a very stressful situation for everybody.

The staff of SOS Children’s Villages who are presently in western regions of Ukraine have succeeded in identifying four local qualified partner organizations with whom SOS Children’s Villages will implement an emergency programme to support children living in residential institutions and internally displaced people in western Ukraine. The organizations are located in four different regions, as follows: Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zakarpattya. SOS Children’s Villages and the partner organizations are now making the plans for purchases and distribution of supplies and for offering psychosocial services to children in residential institutions and to internally displaced people.