The silent tragedy: Who cares for Ukrainian children?

2024-06-09 12:28:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

More than 13,000 children from Ukraine are growing up without parents. Ahead of the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine in Berlin, children's organizations demand more protection and psychological help for Ukrainian children.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused thousands of Ukrainian children to lose their parents in the war. According to the data of the "SOS-Kinderdorf" organization, more than 13,000 Ukrainian children are growing up without parental care. The organization requested before the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine that takes place in Berlin (11-12.06.) an extended reform of the care system for children as well as their special protection.

Meanwhile, the "terres des hommes" organization asked before the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine in Berlin for greater financial support for organizations that care for children in Ukraine. The conference must ensure that traumatized children and adolescents receive psycho-social help, said the coordinator for Europe, Thomas Berthold for the Evangelical Service, epd. Currently the offers are insufficient, Berthold emphasized.

In the future, the number of children in need will increase significantly

The reasons for the loss of parents are different. The head of the "SOS Kinderdorf" organization for children in Ukraine, Serhii Lukashov, said that "some of the parents have fallen in the war, others are prisoners. After two years of war, more and more families risk being destroyed under the burden of war ". According to the data of this organization, in the future "many, many more" Ukrainian children will need care alternatives, outside the family, the news agency, kna, quotes.

In Ukraine it is a common practice for children to be housed in large anonymous orphanages. There they grow in "very bad" conditions. The "SOS Kinderdorf" organization demands that care for children be adapted to European standards, where children's rights serve as criteria. Since before the war in Ukraine, about 100,000 Ukrainian children grew up in orphanages, 1.3% of the population. More than 90% of these children are not orphans, according to Lukashov, but were brought there because of poverty and urgent economic need. "This needs to change. Instead of sending children to orphanages, families need to be supported." "SOS Kinderdorf" has set up childcare centers in several regions of Ukraine./DW