Thankfully, we’re glad to report that all the staff from our local partners Forget Me Not Nepal (FMN) and The Himalayan Innovative Society (THIS), based in Kathmandu and Western Nepal are safe. We’re also thankful to share that all the children and families we support – including those in Karnali Province, the area affected – are also safe. However, some houses where the children and families live are damaged.

We know that in emergencies, the risk of children ending up in orphanages always increases. As a result of Friday’s deadly earthquake, some children will tragically be grieving one or both parents. Destruction of homes and livelihoods means many mothers and fathers – some newly widowed – will be pushed deeper into poverty and increasingly worried about how to put food on the table. When families struggle to provide for their children, orphanages are mistakenly often seen as the solution, due to widespread misinformation that orphanages offer better alternative care for children.

Increased pressure on families

These sets of circumstances increase the pressure on struggling parents to send their children away to orphanages. They also increase the likelihood that children without parents, families or trusted adults to protect them will be exploited and trafficked into orphanages. Often this is so that the children can help elicit donations from well-meaning, but misinformed, tourists and donors – as we saw following the two devastating earthquakes in April and May 2015.

We cannot let this happen.

Every child has the right to grow up in a safe loving family, not shut away in orphanages.

What we’re doing in Nepal

With our support, our local partners in Nepal work to prevent children being wrongfully separated from their families and sent to orphanages, by

• working with the government to closely monitor and close orphanages
• raising awareness and sharing the truth about the harms of institutions
• supporting families at risk of separation

Now, with vulnerable children at risk following the earthquake, our work is more important than ever.

Crisis response

In particular, our partners will be responding to the earthquake in three areas: humanitarian support, counselling support, and prevention:

Humanitarian support: Our partners will now be working closely with the local authorities in Karnali Province to ensure that vulnerable children and families are provided with food, tents, clothes, blankets, and counseling services to calm their fears and give them hope.

Counselling support: Our team will be following up with families to provide in-person and remote support and guidance – recognising that the impact of the earthquake is both immediate but also that there are now higher long-term risks of traffickers luring families to send their children to orphanages in cities.

Preventing institutionalisation and child trafficking: Our Reintegration team are in close communication with Karnali provincial and local authorities in the earthquake-affected districts – Jajarkot and Rukkum – about the need to prevent institutionalisation and alert them about the risk of children being trafficked into institutions.

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*Each month our teams overseas send us updates on their work. We don’t normally share these externally but the April update from our team in Ukraine is so compelling that we wanted you to see it. So you can get to know our team in their own words, we’ve only edited for understanding, so you may find some of the grammar is not perfect.

In March, there was a firm belief that this horror was about to end.

However, it did not get easier in April. It was both psychologically and physically difficult. Our social workers have already gotten used to sirens, checkpoints and cars with the words “Evacuation”, “Children”. But seeing cars with the inscriptions “300” (wounded) and “Cargo 200” (dead). The deaths of acquaintances. Answers from the services on children’s affairs: “We have a funeral today.” You do not get used to this.

Local authority social workers began to resign and leave because it became dangerous for their own children. Some moved from the border with the Donetsk region closer to Dnipro city, and some went abroad.

Those who have still stayed in workplaces, did the work of three or more specialists. Often it was just one person for a whole community. And furthermore – there were 500-800 internal refugees in settlements with a population of about 5,000 locals. People are placed in kindergartens, schools, abandoned houses, and village halls. Sometimes people come themselves, sometimes in groups by packed buses. Many were forced to leave their homes without anything, without money, and sometimes – also without documents.

A special problem arose due to the return of children to families, who had been in institutions before the war. Due to the war, these institutions were suspended, and children were forced to return to their families. Most of them had been in institutions around-the-clock. In some families, more than three children have been returned after institutions were closed, and there is, in fact, nothing even to feed them.

In total, almost 8 million people in Ukraine have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in other areas. This data does not take into account people who have left the country.

Support for families with children in the Dnipropetrovsk region

We have continued to support families left without livelihoods due to the war. However, due to the large inflow of refugees, we also provided support to families with children who were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in the region’s communities.

Among the families who have been provided with assistance, there were:

• 28 families to whom 75 children were returned from institutions after the beginning of the war;
• 21 guardian families who take care of 59 orphans,
• 702 families raising 1,055 children, including 12 children with disabilities and 145 children under 3.

Support of families with children in the Donetsk region

Our work here (supported by UNICEF) has changed because of the war and is refocused on ensuring priority assistance to families with children. In the period 14 March to 30 April 2022, the assistance of food and hygiene products was provided to 150 families raising 302 children. Among children, there are 10 children with disabilities and 39 children under the age of 3 years old.

It should be noted that the teams in all communities of the Donetsk region have joined our work (identifying needs, purchasing, packing, and delivery to families). People work seven days a week. Specialists of centres of social services, and psychologists have all become active participants in determining the needs of families with children, and continue providing psychological and social support.

The groups of families covered by the humanitarian aid are:

• Families raising orphans and children deprived of parental care
• Families in difficult life circumstances
• Single mothers
• Large families.

It should be noted that the situation in the communities of the Donetsk region is also changing fast. There is constant shelling in suburbs, in various areas, air strikes, refugees, evacuees. However, many families with children remain in the settlements. These families are unable to leave, many have lost their jobs, and medical care is almost non-existent.

Supporting refugees

Assistance to internal migrants has become a top priority for us in Dnipropetrovsk, due to the unpreparedness for the large inflow of “refugees”, the undeveloped system of social support of the state, and the lack of other NGOs and volunteer initiatives there. A large number of remote communities noted that Hope and Homes for Children is the only organisation that helps the people in need there. From such communities, our experts constantly hear many words of gratitude for timely targeted assistance to families with children.

“Many people ‘collect the needs’ and promise to help, but only you provide a real and necessary help right now! Thank you from us and every family who received food kits! May God protect you!”

Head of one of the services on children’s affairs

The assistance is provided in combination with the provision of primary social and psychological assistance to families and children, and family counselling. It is always an individual meeting, finding out the current situation of the family, what problems the family has (medical support, counselling, referral to other services providers, informing parents, and psychological support).

The post Ukraine Update appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

As the war in Ukraine intensifies, many people want to do something – anything – to help. By donating to our work in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, you’ll be protecting children and families both now and in the aftermath of this war. Here are 4 ways that your support will make a difference.

The invasion of Ukraine is a crisis on many fronts. As well as the violence and bloodshed being endured by those within the country, thousands of people have already fled across the border. Already, families have been separated in the chaos, and children are travelling, unaccompanied, into foreign countries. 

We are deeply concerned for the 100,000 children warehoused in Ukraine’s orphanage system. Orphanage buildings are already being targeted by shells, missiles and illegal cluster bombs. As fighting intensifies, the staff in these institutions are fleeing. Large numbers of children are being left to face the dangers of war, alone.  

This brutal invasion is not only exposing children and families to unimaginable harm right now, but will continue to do so for years to come. We must act now to avert a child protection emergency across Eastern Europe. 

By supporting our work across Ukraine, Moldova and Romania you can help protect children and families right now and in the aftermath of this war.

Here are 4 ways your donation will help: 

We have staff in Lviv, Kyiv and Dnipro.

Our teams in Lviv, Kyiv and Dnipro are providing practical, life-saving support for to thousands of vulnerable children, parents and carers. Through cash transfers and direct interventions we’ve helped families access food, water, and protection.

In Kyiv, we’re providing emergency provisions for children and parents living with disability and unable to secure essential provisions. We anticipate reaching 1,000 families (approximately 3,000 people) in the coming weeks.

In Dnipro, we’ve organised the evacuation of 63 vulnerable children, carers and their families to Iasi, Romania. This includes one child with special needs, and 7 babies. Our evacuation has ensured continuity of care for children – and is what we expect for all children.

Working with the local authorities, we remain committed to protecting these children, for as long as it takes. With the support we have received through our fundraising appeal, we plan to scale our emergency support for up to 14,000 vulnerable children, parents and carers in Ukraine.

As of 28 March 2022 we have seen over 3.9 million refugees cross the border out of Ukraine, with more than 6m displaced internally. Many of these are unaccompanied children. 

In Moldova, we’ve been called on by the ministry of social protection to directly support unaccompanied children with material and emotional support. As part of a cross-organisational humanitarian effort coordinated by Unicef, we are supporting unaccompanied children and refugee families at Blue Dot emergency reception facility on the border.  This work requires our team of social workers, child psychologists and admissions staff to provide round the clock care to unaccompanied children and refugee families at risk of trafficking, exploitation and other dangers. We’ve also made plans to provide up to 9,000 vulnerable children, parents and carers in Moldova, with psychological support at eight government approved emergency reception centres, alongside developing and equipping additional support services including safe spaces for mothers and babies and play environments for young children.

In Romania we’re working with UNICEF and other partners to support the emergency relief effort, as mothers, children, young people and the elderly cross the border through Sighetu Marmatiei. Alongside the provision of vitally needed essentials including sleeping bags, blankets, food and medicines we’re focusing on identifying and supporting unaccompanied children who have suffered long term institutionalisation and who are at greatest risk of exploitation and abuse.

We are also making direct interventions to support refugees and partner organisations. For example, a partner of Hope and Homes for Children Romania in Sibiu County asked for support in terms of hygiene products and baby items, as well as clothing items and toys for three groups of Ukrainian refugees that are housed in three locations belonging to the Pentecostal church (28 children in one location, 31 children in the second one and 33 children in the third one). They are accompanied by their parents and/or relatives and arrived here at the end of March.

Our Romanian colleagues anticipate an increase in traffic at secondary (i.e. Moldovan-Romanian) border points, e.g. Iași, as more people arrive from Ukraine via Moldova. As witnessed at the customs in Sighetu, more refugees now arriving are coming on foot, with plastic bags. Colleagues in both Romania and Moldova anticipate a second wave of arrivals who will need a lot more humanitarian assistance.

We’re using our expertise to make sure border crossings are as safe as they can be for vulnerable children and young people and to advocate for the safe reunification of families as soon as possible and where this is not possible, for emergency foster and family type care for children.   

As we urgently work to meet the immediate needs of the refugee crisis, our already limited resources are being stretched. In some cases, our teams of social workers and child psychologists are leaving their own children and families to travel hundreds of kilometres from their homes so they can set up close to the border and provide desperately needed physical, emotional and psycho-social support.  

However, many of the children and families in our existing programmes rely on these child protection experts for support. Before the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, we were already providing emergency interventions for children and support for families at risk of separation. All of these children and families still need our help – and we cannot turn our backs on them.  

Maintaining our existing programmes will also be vital in the aftermath of this war. Our organisation was born out of the Balkans Conflict 30 years ago – and we’ve seen the long-term effects of war on children and families. Our work will not be finished, even when news of this conflict has died down. 

In addition to our work on the ground, we are also fighting to raise the profile of children and families with so that they are placed at the centre of the humanitarian response – including with the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and G7 countries (especially the UK Government).  

Funding and humanitarian assistance will be needed at significant scale to support the protection of the children living in the 700 institutions across Ukraine. 

In support of this we have: 

• Written to UN OCHA to ask for their help to ensure orphanages and other residential care facilities hosting children and families are recognised and signaled as protected humanitarian spaces in the course of the conflict.  
• We’re calling on governments in neighbouring countries to support refugees fleeing over the border. Families must be kept together at all costs. We must keep displaced children traveling alone out of orphanages – instead prioritising emergency foster care and family reunification.  
• We have put together a set of advocacy messages on the reception and protection of refugee, unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine coming into neighbour countries. These messages are being used by our teams in Romania and Moldova as well as at EU level to advocate for children to be reunited with families or supported through temporary foster and family like care. 
• Finally, we are coordinating with other global agencies that have a presence in Ukraine to share updates on the situation on the ground, connect our Ukraine colleagues, and assess possible joint advocacy actions on children in institutions.

We are a small organisation with limited resources, but we’re uniquely placed in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania to ensure those resources, skills and expertise protect children and families right now, and in the aftermath of this war. 

In the event that funds raised exceed what is needed to deliver Hope and Homes for Children immediate and longer-term response to this crisis, we will use donations where the need is greatest.

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