Please help children from the bombed hospital in Kyiv.

When Ohmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine was hit by a Russian missile on the 8th of July, two children we support were inside, receiving treatment. Their carers grabbed them and carried them out of the building, but it was hours before we knew they were safe, though traumatised. Both have complex health needs and Ohmatdyt had saved their lives – and become their temporary home. Now we need your help to find them somewhere safe to live.

I was in Ukraine on the 8th of July. My colleague, Marianna Onufryk and I were training state authorities on how to reunite children with disabilities with their families. For more than 30 years, I have been helping governments and communities to change care systems for children. The courage of the Ukrainian people and government – and their commitment to building a better future for all their children – is one of the most impressive things I have seen in three decades. The attack on Ohmatdyt affected everyone in the room – but also made us all more determined to create a better system for children with disabilities and their families.

Over the past year, we have been supporting a group of more than 50 children with complex disabilities who had suffered almost unimaginable horrors since the war began. Already among the most disadvantaged in Ukraine’s society, the children lived in large orphanages, where the care was, at the best of times, sub-standard and neglectful. When the full-scale invasion happened in early 2022, the orphanage they lived in was bombed and the children had to be evacuated to a safer part of the country. The impact of shelling, the continuous air raid sirens – and the sudden, haphazard journey across the country - were incredibly distressing for the children, especially because no-one could explain what was happening to them.

Like many thousands of children from Ukraine’s orphanages, new homes had to be found quickly – so they were moved to other orphanages – which soon became overfull and under-resourced. By the time we intervened, the children had suffered multiple traumas and the staff were struggling to cope. The risk of preventable death was high.

Together with the Ukrainian government, we hired and trained a local team to provide individualised care and support for the children. Some children had very complex health needs – and Ohmatdyt hospital took them in. Several had to stay in hospital for months. We provided individual carers who lived in the hospital with the children 24/7 – and developed special bonds with them. This loving care, combined with specialist health services, had transformed the children – they were going from strength to strength. We were getting them ready to move into family care for the long-term – never to have to return to an orphanage.

But organising permanent future family placements will take another few months. Right now, the children and carers are in temporary accommodation in another institution – which only adds to their trauma. And they have to leave this place by the first of September.

Working with Open Hands, Ukrainian charities and the government, we’ve devised a plan to rent apartments for the children and carers to live for the next six months, until their permanent family homes are ready. The apartments will be in accessible buildings with accessible bomb shelters – and the children will receive therapy, education and play activities, together with other children in the community. They will also be able to continue their vital medical treatment. In addition, we will provide counselling and therapy for the carers – their sole focus has been on making sure the children are ok, but they were also traumatised by being in the hospital when it was bombed.

We need £20,000 to support this work – and we need to raise it in the next couple of weeks. Please help us.

Should we raise anything beyond that amount, it will be spent on finding families and homes for other children with disabilities currently living in orphanages – and preventing children from being separated from their families.

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this vital cause. Every donation will help transform the lives of some of Ukraine's most disadvantaged children.

More information about Open Hands Charity: Open Hands supports the poorest and most disadvantaged children in Romania; our aim is to provide for those without a loving family, secure home and education. Our motivation is to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. Since the war began, we have also been helping Ukrainian refugees in Romania, as well as children, families and communities in Ukraine.

Photo citation: Vitali Yurasov, the Collection of war.ukraine.ua. Thank you Vitali.