“My biggest dream is for my daughter to get better”
To help families to cope with the stress and challenges, UNICEF provides them with shock-responsive cash assistance
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Eva was born during wartime, so two-years into her life the sounds of sirens and explosions are the backdrop against which she is growing up. She lives with her family in Kharkiv city, where residential areas and critical infrastructure regularly come under fire, devastating lives and the services that children and families rely on.
“Eva is the center of the universe for my husband and me,” says Daryna
In December 2025, their lives became even more challenging when Eva suddenly developed internal intestinal bleeding. Nothing had indicated any potential health problems, Daryna explains and Eva was active and curious, developing in line with her age. The sudden blood loss and her critical condition came as a shock to the family.
“We were taken by ambulance to Okhmatdyt in Kyiv because her condition was critical and there was no time to delay,” Daryna recalls. At the specialist peadiatric hospital in the capital, doctors managed to stabilize Eva’s condition, which was diagnosed as ‘intestinal vascular malformations’. “When food passes through the intestines, it can irritate the intestinal walls and cause bleeding,” Eva’s mother explains. There is no cure but possible solutions may be explored when Eva is older and due to the illness she has been officially recognized as a child with a disability.
“Doctors advised us to lead as normal a life as possible. The only recommendation concerns diet, Eva must avoid certain foods,” Daryna says.
Back in Kharkiv, the family faced multiple challenges. New attacks led to prolonged blackouts and a loss of heating and Eva was hospitalized again with a recurrence of bleeding. At times when the city was plunged into darkness and cold due to strikes on infrastructure, hospitals became the family’s only island of safety.
During the tough winter days, UNICEF provided the family with shock-responsive cash assistance. Daryna explains that with expenses increasing significantly due to the war and their child’s illness, these funds became a critically important resource for the family.
“This assistance came at the right time and was exactly what we needed. We spent it on our child, diapers, food. We also used part of the money to pay for utilities, heating bills were particularly high. Looking back at what we went through, I understand that without UNICEF’s support, both to us and to the city overall, it would have been much harder”
“My biggest dream is for my daughter to be healthy, to live under a peaceful sky, and to have a full life. To go to kindergarten, spend time with friends, grow, and communicate. I want to take her to the sea, to the mountains, to show her the whole world. I’m very glad that spring has come. For me, it is associated with hope for the better”
More than 14,200 children and their caregivers were provided with this support, while UNICEF also bolstered the city’s energy infrastructure to ensure essential child services kept running during acritical period.
The shock-responsive cash assistance project for families in Kharkiv city is being implemented by UNICEF within the framework of Social Protection for Inclusion, Resilience, Innovation and Transformation (SPIRIT) programme funded by the UK government.
