When war broke out in Ukraine, SOS Children’s Villages immediately launched a major emergency relief campaign which will initially benefit 15,000 people. The organisation will assist with the evacuation of children and families affected by the conflict, help them find a safe place to stay, and distribute food, hygiene kits and medicines. In addition, SOS Children’s Villages is providing psychological emergency support since many people are under shock and experiencing severe emotional stress. In particular, the relief organisation wants to support children without parental care, foster families and highly vulnerable families.

The Wilo-Foundation has been supporting the SOS Children’s Village organisation for ten years now, for instance by providing funding for water and sanitation projects in Kenya, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire and India, emergency relief in the Philippines and youth welfare programmes in SOS Children’s Villages in Serbia, Russia and, most recently, in Uzbekistan.

Now, in Ukraine, the Wilo-Foundation is making a donation to the humanitarian aid campaign that targets children, youth and families and was launched by the organisation in the wake of the escalation: “In this dramatic situation, which has come as a surprise to all of us, we stand at the side of the Ukrainian people and of our funding partner with whom we have been working for many years. Children and families need our help now,” says Evi Hoch, member of the Executive Board of the Wilo-Foundation.

In the light of the potential escalation of the situation, the local SOS Children’s Villages team had prepared a contingency plan even before the war began and begun evacuation measures to take children and their foster parents from our programmes out of the Luhansk region and to the western part of the country. About 100 children and adults have already been evacuated. The families living in the houses of the SOS Children’s Village Brovary found refuge in an air-raid shelter during the shelling.

For further information about the organisation’s emergency assistance programme and ways to support it, click here.

Background:

SOS Children’s Villages is an independent, non-governmental and non-denominational aid agency for children that is active all over the world. SOS Children’s Villages has been advocating for the rights of children since 1949. The organisation is now working in 137 countries around the globe. The role of SOS Children’s Villages is to help abandoned and destitute children and youth lead a better life. In the surrounding areas of the villages, neighbourhood support is also provided for families in need through self-help projects, educational initiatives and healthcare centres.