A Year of War. A Year of Hope.

A Year of War. A Year of Hope.

By Chloe Fuller

“If they truly believe in what they are doing and they can see people’s lives being changed by their actions,
a few self-sacrificing citizens can really change the world.” – Pavlo Shulha

A year ago today, the unthinkable happened. For several of our staff, it started with a phone call.

“I remember early in the morning I got a call from my brother,” said Nata Kravchuk, Kidsave’s Communications Director in Ukraine. “He called to ask how we were doing and if we were ok. I did not understand what he meant, and that’s when he said, ‘Don’t you know there is a war going on?’”

Nata recalls being in shock, unable to believe that her country had been invaded overnight. Living in Khmelnytskyi, just west of Vinnytsia, the explosions and air strikes had not yet reached them. She remembers checking her phone which was flooded with messages and alerts.

Nata immediately called her parents. After hearing that they were safe, she noticed her son was getting ready to go to school, unaware that their world had turned upside-down overnight. “I had to stop him at the door on his way to school and tell him that there was a war going on,” said Nata.

Nata and her family were just a few of the millions of Ukrainians suddenly in the midst of a previously unimaginable situation. On the other side of the globe, Kidsave staff members in the U.S. were also receiving the news.

Tatiana Stafford, VP and Director of Kidsave Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, remembers feeling stunned when she received news of the invasion in the middle of the night. And before she had a chance to wrap her head around the fact that the invasion had really happened, she began working on a way to help the Kidsave team and the children in Ukraine. Her first call was to Randi Thompson, Kidsave Co-Founder and CEO.

“Time seemed to stand still when I heard the news and all I could think was, ‘This can’t be happening,’” said Randi. “My immediate concern was for the children. We’d served hundreds of children in Ukraine since 2016 and we knew we had to help them. We had to act, and we had to act fast.”

A Call To Action

Kidsave immediately began coordinating with local partner, Pavlo Shulha, to begin rescue and evacuation efforts. At the time, Pavlo was serving as the President of the Ukrainian Mentoring Association for children and youth and counselor to the Chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional Council. In addition to his professional experience in child welfare, Pavlo and his wife Olena have seven adopted children, so the need to help orphaned children and children deprived of parental care is close to their hearts.

Pavlo and Olena began recruiting more volunteers and drivers, and soon what started as a team of three became a team of over 200 people. Kidsave raised funds and acquired vehicles, protective gear, communications equipment and more for rescue and evacuation and humanitarian aid delivery. Initially, our goal was to evacuate 1,000 people to safety, prioritizing evacuating orphanages and children and families first. We very quickly met and surpassed that goal, but we continued to help as many people as possible. Our team came to be known as Anhely nadiyi or Angels of Hope.

Over the last year, Kidsave has successfully evacuated over 30,000 people to safety.

As the first months passed, the needs of the people began to change. The need for rescue and evacuation began to slow while the need for humanitarian aid and supplies for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and those sheltering in place only grew. Our team began developing partnerships with other local nongovernmental organizations and nonprofits to source, package, and deliver food kits, clean water, medicine and medical supplies, hygiene kits, and other necessities.

Over the last year, we have delivered over 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

While much of our efforts have been focused on meeting the immediate humanitarian needs in Ukraine, we have continued our core work to the best of our ability.  empower teens aging out of institutional care to build healthy, productive, independent lives by connecting them to caring adult mentors who will help them succeed. These mentors help the teens understand their career interests, increase their confidence to enter the workforce and society, increase their motivation and readiness to work, and support their basic understanding of money management.

At its core, this program works to help these teens navigate their futures and support them in ways they have never experienced before. Despite the challenges of the current situation, the program has continued and has begun providing additional counseling and resources such as food and aid to ensure the youth remain safe and cared for in this difficult time.

Over the last year, we have served 207 youth through our Corporate Mentoring program Pathways to Success.

We have also continued our core work of moving children out of institutions and orphanages and into families. While adoptions have ceased under Martial Law, we have been able to successfully move 24 children out of institutions and into families for foster care or guardianship.

Looking to the Future

As we reflect on the last year’s challenges, we continue to look to the future of Ukraine. Kidsave was recently gifted a plot of land, and construction is currently underway on the Kidsave Miracles Center. The idea for the center began with the goal of providing a safe place where orphaned children can meet potential adoptive families and older youth can receive mentoring and career training. Kidsave is also in the process of opening a representative office in Ukraine to be led by Pavlo Shulha. Today, Kidsave’s team is working with its partner organization, Sunrise of Dreams, to provide psycho-emotional support to internally displaced mothers in Mykolaiv. While the mothers receive support and counseling, their children are cared for and entertained with art supplies, and the families are given food assistance and kits to help sustain them. Once the Kidsave Miracles Center and representative office are operational, we will be able to expand these efforts.

This work would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our community. To everyone who has given or shown their support in any way, thank you. Your support has truly been lifesaving.

You can learn more and support our work in Ukraine here.