Foster family forge bond amid ongoing war in Ukraine
Amid the violence in Ukraine, UNICEF and partners are helping foster mothers like Oksana to meet their family’s basic needs
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Oksana, 46, is a foster mother from Bunakove, in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkivska region. When the full-scale war broke out in February 2022, her foster children were far away.
"The war started like a nightmare,” she recalls. “The children were at a holiday resort, while we were at home. My youngest daughter, my daughter-in-law, my two grandkids and I were left alone.”
Fortunately, Oksana’s foster children were evacuated to Dnipro, and later to a safer place in the west of Ukraine.
"The kids were frightened, they hid in a basement,” says Oksana, who works as a headteacher at the local school. “They would call and ask, ‘Mom, how are you there?’ I would respond, ‘No, tell me how are you? We're at least at home.’”
After four long months, despite the ongoing shelling and violence, Oksana and her foster children were finally reunited. But life in Bunakove had changed dramatically – food was scarce, prices were high and the nearest open shop was 60 kilometres away. When food became three or even four times more expensive, feeding her family became a challenge.
"We started to freeze bread as a reserve," says Oksana.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has now provided financial assistance to Oksana and her family. They used the funds to buy food and to build a shelter in the basement of the garage that could protect the large family during shelling. Part of the money was also used to repair the pumping station that supplies water to the house.
The children continue to bring happiness to Oksana, whose own mother also founded a family-type children's home. Both women live in the same village and help each other.
"You shouldn't be afraid to take children and give them love," says Oksana. “In orphanages, there are groups of 20 to 30 children. There is no way to pay attention to each child.”
"Together with my siblings, we play, work on our homework and do puzzles,” says her foster daughter Karyna, 17. “I like that we have a big family, I have sisters who love me very much."
UNICEF supports the de-institutionalization reform and development of family-based child care in Ukraine, including by providing financial assistance to large families, foster families, family-type children's homes and families raising children with disabilities. As of May 2023, UNICEF has financially assisted more than 250,000 families across the country, supporting more than 700,000 children.
In 2023, UNICEF's cash assistance programme is aimed at families with children, as well as families with foster children and family-type children's homes in the East and South of Ukraine who live in newly accessible areas and within a 30-kilometre zone from the frontline.
The Spilno Cash assistance programme is implemented by UNICEF, with funding provided by the European Union, the governments of Portugal, Norway and Germany through the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the family of UNICEF National Committees.
