Children are one of the most vulnerable groups affected by Putin’s attacks on Ukraine.
They bear the heavy burden of this conflict and need utmost attention and care—especially those who have lost one or both parents to the war.
As the media reports more than 500 days of fighting, millions of Ukrainian children were forced to live with the horrors of armed conflict. An estimated 1.5 million of them are at risk of suffering from devastating impact on their mental health and well-being. Of these, many are forced to go on without one or both parents.
Ukrainian soldiers were called to duty, leaving their families behind to protect their homeland. Other parents killed in war were civilians. Indeed, they are all heroes, not only in the eyes of the Ukrainian public, but also in the eyes of their children who are deprived of crucial emotional support and guidance during their formative years.
As a young non-profit organization, we at Children of Heroes (CoH) do what we can to support children in war-torn Ukraine by working on projects like a psychological support camp. It is just one of the many support programs for grieving orphans, a reminder that healing is possible despite cruel realities of war and conflict.
The invasion of Ukraine creates intergenerational trauma that will take decades to recover, and we believe healing is doable with communities of care that we build together. CoH enables donors with the opportunity to extend their hands to these children by providing holistic support that ensures children’s economic, psychological, and emotional well-being well into adulthood. Through our brave Family Helpers, we are able to assess, deliver and monitor urgent and long-term needs to help remaining family members fulfill the challenging but crucial responsibility of raising young individuals forced to live without their mothers or fathers.
CoH believes that collaboration is essential in establishing comprehensive and innovative support systems that are specifically tailored to the needs of these children. In the pillars of CoH’s assistance programs, we strive to answer to the emergency, educational, psychological and developmental needs of affected children through the help of partner organizations and donors. The onus to address the loss of education, safe shelter, and socialization is primarily on governments, but it does not exempt us civilians from this duty towards building a better, more sustainable and peaceful world—for the benefit of our own and future generations.
Ultimately, our goal in CoH is to foster a sense of community resilience within Ukraine by approximating normalcy in children’s lives. But we cannot do this by ourselves. What can the youth all over the world do to contribute to the cause of Ukrainian children?
Young people who want to build a world of justice and diplomacy must make their voices heard and call on their governments to denounce the war, to stand with the children of Ukraine who were robbed not only of their parents but also of their childhood.
We need only to be aware of our own geopolitics in the region to understand how volatile our situation of peace is. Especially for Southeast Asia, the war in Ukraine is not a distant conflict. We have seen war depicted in history books and movies and now, it’s in the news everywhere. To prevent similar attacks on sovereignty from happening in more countries and to more children, we must work towards active peacekeeping.
Is there anything we can do from where we are? Always. We can join existing initiatives where available. We can leverage technology to amplify messages of peace, contribute to stories of positive change and work with like-minded individuals globally. No help is too small in causes as devastating as war.
Support from young advocates is key to sustaining the ongoing efforts for protecting and empowering Ukrainian children. In celebration of International Youth Day, we call on fellow young people to channel their energies where it is most needed. Together, let’s look after our own—across borders and countries—and be a hero for the children of Ukraine.
