Ukraine, 25.000 children supported

In Ukraine, the prevailing sentiment is exhaustion from a war that has drained the country, forcing men to live in fear of being called to the front and leaving pain and suffering among children and families traumatized by violence and the loss of their loved ones in combat.

Ukraine is a context where, beyond the conflict and its destruction, much must be rebuilt from a human perspective. This is what AVSI is doing through community centers and projects, especially for minors, set up in smaller settlements where services and humanitarian aid are harder to reach.

We are present in several regions in the southeastern area: Donetsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Odesa.

Our main areas of intervention remain education and child protection. Initially, we focused on humanitarian aid activities, such as the distribution of food, winter kits, and medical supplies. Now, this approach has evolved toward a more long-term perspective. As a result, we have refined our model of community centers.

We establish contact with individual municipalities, initially focusing on larger urban centers and then extending our efforts to smaller, less-reached areas.

We ask municipalities to provide a school or library, where we first intervene by renovating the structure. We pay particular attention to securing and upgrading bomb shelters, improving ventilation and heating systems, and enhancing internet connectivity. All of this is done to activate a range of educational services.

Here, we focus on after-school programs, support for distance learning, recovery courses with teachers' presence, and psychosocial activities, alongside actual psychological support. We also offer recreational programs and activities for children and families, designed to support parenting in emergency contexts like these.

In some areas, we operate as close as 50 kilometers to active conflict zones. The permitted limit being 30 kilometers. We work in small centers located in rural areas, where many Ukrainians, having returned from neighboring countries, have not yet gone back to their places of origin. For now, they prefer to stay in larger centers

Three years of conflict have taken a severe toll on families, and very few have been untouched or remain unaffected. Many families have been separated as fathers are called to the front, leaving mothers as the heads of households, or children have become orphans.

Even the few veterans who return—many of whom find it difficult to be discharged—are deeply affected psychologically, and this has a profound impact on the family dynamics.

In recent years, domestic violence and alcoholism, which were already present in Ukrainian society, have risen dramatically. Furthermore, in areas close to the front lines, schools have remained closed for extended periods.

In the community centers, children can participate in after-school programs and remote lessons, but they also have the opportunity to gather in small groups in the afternoons. However, the closure of schools and the challenges within their families are taking a toll on their mental health. They struggle to interact with each other due to the trauma they’ve experienced.

To address this, we work to create opportunities for these children, guided by educators and psychologists, who also provide support to their families. This is made possible through a collaboration with Resilience, an Italian association of psychologists who have worked alongside local psychologists in emergency situations across Ukraine.

From our Ukrainian colleagues, I sense a profound fatigue—the country is drained. An agreement must be reached soon, as the current government stance, which had widespread support until recently, is no longer backed by the population.

Conscription remains an incredibly sensitive issue: as a humanitarian organization, we’ve experienced a high turnover in staff, especially among men and younger individuals. There is immense fear of being called to the front, and the stories from those who leave are terrifying.

Exemptions are minimal, and movement has become increasingly difficult: there are checkpoints for inspections, summons for medical evaluations, followed by departure orders. The training for conscripts is brief—around 15 days—before they are sent to the frontlines.

This is the central topic of conversation, deeply influencing the demand for an end to the conflict. In the centers where we operate, the sound of bombs is a constant presence—it has become part of daily life. Alarms go off at any hour, alongside the ever-present risk of destruction and death.

Every time I visit Ukraine, I am struck by the resilience of the people. Life does not stop. They continue, despite everything, starting anew each day. This is why, as AVSI, we aim to connect the themes of peace and education, as we look towards the country’s rebirth. Today, the predominant sentiment is a desire to end the war. However, this situation will inevitably lead to tensions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian individuals. There are still significant portions of the population that maintain sympathy for Moscow.

We also work in Poland with Ukrainian refugees and have been doing so since the beginning of the war, particularly in border areas. Over time, our Polish branch has taken the lead, developing social and economic integration projects specifically for Ukrainian refugees—all of whom are women.

To support their entry into the Polish labor market, we have implemented training programs, language courses, and initiatives focused on technical and transferable skills, benefiting 300 individuals. This effort should also be considered in the context of their potential return to Ukraine, where labor shortages are becoming a pressing issue.

A demographic challenge will need to be addressed soon: among the six million Ukrainians who have left the country and the one and a half million currently at the front, certain professional profiles are already in short supply.

Initially, there was a strong wave of solidarity, but integration challenges are now emerging. Nevertheless, the overall environment remains welcoming.