Ukraine Relief Fund

Street Child works with local NGOs to ensure every child has access to an education. Street Child has a base of carefully selected education partners in Ukraine who’ll work in the coming months to build resilience in the education response for internally displaced people (IDP) through psychosocial support for 10,000 IDP children, summer camp-style informal education, and access to education for 2,580 children through education hubs where children can not only access online learning with teacher support but also attend catch-up classes to close their gaps in learning.

Street Child is partnering with the Moldovan Government to ensure access to essential early education for refugee learners from Ukraine whilst expanding access to equitable, quality early education for early learners from Moldova and Ukraine; generate real-time evidence to inform early education expansion plans of the Government of Moldova as anticipated in the 2030 Moldova Strategy and leverage real-time evidence to engage and expand global evidence on early education in emergencies.

Teach for Ukraine is a partner in the global Teach for All network, spanning more than 60 countries on six continents. The organization engages the best graduates and young professionals from diverse backgrounds to teach for two years in Ukraine’s rural high-need schools. Teach for Ukraine is launching a 6- to 8-week tech-enabled tutoring program to provide learning and psychosocial support to Ukrainian students in grades 5 through 10 who are out of school because of the war. Existing evidence shows that high dosage small group tutoring involving one-on-one or small-group instruction is one of the most versatile and potentially transformative educational tools today.

Approximately 2,800 adolescents will go through the program in small groups, receiving six one-hour sessions each week. Each group is assigned three tutors who have specific training to deliver academic content and additional training on providing psychosocial support to students, which comprises a quarter of the tutoring time. World Health Organization (WHO) continues its close coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and other health emergency organizations to deliver support to populations in Ukraine and neighboring countries. WHO will help ensure the strained Ukrainian health system can continue to offer the population access to vital healthcare. This will be accomplished by providing operational support for hospitals and health facilities, coordinating the deployment of emergency medical teams, delivering lifesaving medical supplies, supporting referrals for patients within Ukraine or in the European Union, and coordinating the global health.

Lumos has been supporting the government in Ukraine to reform the institutional care system to better protect vulnerable children and prevent family separation. Around 100,000 children are currently trapped in orphanages across Ukraine; the invasion by Russian forces means more children are now in danger. 

Lumos aims to protect as many children as they can by providing emergency food, hygiene and medical kits, and by helping to support their evacuation.

Lumos has been working extensively in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, which lies between an invading force and the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. In Zhytomyr alone, there are over 1,500 children trapped in orphanages and thousands more are now at risk of displacement and family separation.

Hope and Homes for Children was born out of the Balkans conflict 30 years ago and is an organization uniquely placed in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. They are using their resources, skills and expertise to protect children and families right now, and in the aftermath of this war.

Over 100,000 children remain warehoused in Ukraine’s orphanage system – in a network of over 700 buildings and the vulnerability of the children is increasing by the day. As fighting intensifies and curfews and migration increase, staff are fleeing. Large numbers of children are being left to face the dangers of war, alone. Hope and Homes for Children are working on providing practical, life-saving support through cash transfers and direct interventions including supporting the evacuation of abandoned children, where safe and appropriate to do so, getting them to safe centres with trained social workers. They are also helping families in rural areas get access to food, water and protection.

In neighbouring countries Moldava and Romania, they are working with governments and international organizations to ensure the safe reception and protection of refugee, unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine. Keeping siblings together, away from child traffickers or out of orphanages, and instead pushing for emergency foster care and family reunification are absolute priorities.

Civic has been a vital and unique player in the protection-of-civilians movement for almost two decades across more than ten countries. CIVIC collaborates with civilians to bring their protection concerns directly to those in power, engages with armed actors to reduce the harm they cause to civilians, and advises governments and multinational bodies on how to make lasting policy changes. CIVIC has been present in Ukraine since 2017, working directly with local communities and assisting the Ukrainian government and Armed Forces of Ukraine to build capacity to protect civilians. With a focus on areas at risk of escalation and newly liberated areas in Ukraine, CIVIC aims to reduce harm to civilians through promoting community self-protection and effective civil-military engagement.

Project HOPE is providing primary health services, mental health and psychosocial support, and pediatric care to internally displaced persons in Ukraine as well as refugees in neighboring countries.

A grant will support Project HOPE in continuing to ensure displaced Ukrainians in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and Romania have access to essential health services and psychosocial support.

Project HOPE has a long history in the region and first began working in Ukraine in 2002 on drug use prevention, HIV prevention and education for children in primary schools.

International Rescue Committee Germany provides tools and support for the successful integration and resettlement of refugees. In Germany, IRC will help mitigate the risk of long-term negative effects on refugee children’s development, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing by supporting early childhood development (ECD) providers with skills and techniques to help children. 

The Healing Classrooms methodology has been evaluated in several countries and there is promising evidence of impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of children affected by conflict. IRC will train 700 ECD providers to support newly arrived refugee children in their social-emotional development, provide them with age- and language-appropriate learning opportunities, and engage with their families in a trauma-informed way.

Crown Agents is at the forefront of the Ukraine crisis, procuring and delivering critical, life-saving medical goods and equipment to support and protect the most vulnerable who are impacted by the conflict. As a partner of the Ukrainian government for over 25 years, Crown Agents knows the country’s health landscape and has links to distribution networks.

A grant will help them procure and deliver first aid kits and other equipment and critical supplies requested by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

Building on IRC's existing presence in Poland, IRC is working with local partners and the Polish authorities to stand up response centers for Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Poland. IRC will ensure that these refugees have their basic needs met through the provision of hygiene kits, cash assistance, and psychosocial support. Cash assistance—through vouchers that can be used at local markets—allows displaced families to buy essential goods including food.

IRC will deliver life-saving information through its suite of digital tools that provide up-to-date information in multiple languages on legal rights and documentation, accommodation, transportation, medical care and more to people who are in transit or starting life in a new country.

IRC is also working with local partners in Ukraine itself, within the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the eastern edge of the country, to quickly mobilize emergency support for families, such as economic assistance, survival supplies, and protection services for civilians who have been forced to flee their homes.

UNICEF works with governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations and national networks to ensure humanitarian, programmatic and advocacy support for children and their families staying in refugee hosting countries. A grant will support UNICEF in their efforts to provide millions of women and children in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia with healthcare, mental health, psychosocial support and education. UNICEF’s Blue Dot centers, established in partnership with UNHCR and other partners, are providing safe spaces for children and families and connect them to critical information and services. 

World Health Organization (WHO) continues its close coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and other health emergency organizations to deliver support to populations in Ukraine and neighboring countries. WHO will help ensure the strained Ukrainian health system can continue to offer the population access to vital healthcare. This will be accomplished by providing operational support for hospitals and health facilities, coordinating the deployment of emergency medical teams, delivering lifesaving medical supplies, supporting referrals for patients within Ukraine or in the European Union, and coordinating the global health response in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

Depaul International is the leading global agency specializing in homelessness. Depaul, already working in Ukraine since 2007, is providing critical assistance to 2,255 at-risk children and family members. Depaul’s approach is holistic—providing a combination of housing support, cash assistance, and psychosocial support.

The Global Fund for Children (GFC) has been offering support since the first week of the crisis and continues to scale its response across the region by supporting 37 grassroots organizations: 30 in Ukraine and another 7 along the Ukrainian border in Moldova and Romania.

The GFC has a long history of supporting child-focused grassroots organizations in the region and in particular Ukraine. 

Due to those connections, the GFC has been able to quickly mobilize support to local organizations targeting vulnerable children, youth and families that are providing immediate humanitarian assistance on the ground in Ukraine. 

Flexible funding over the coming months will allow GFC partners to provide humanitarian assistance, including food, safe shelter, transportation, medicine, evacuation support, psychosocial assistance and educational access.