Ukrainian Children of War is a project run by the charitable company Ukrainian Development Charity in Edinburgh, in cooperation with the River of Life charity in Ukraine.

The project aims to assist children that have been directly affected by the war in Ukraine, either through the loss of a parent or through being displaced from their home.

We bring families (typically children and mothers) on welfare stays in Europe or Western Ukraine, where they can work with trauma specialists as well as just relax and recover strength.

In 2016 we brought a group of 20 children to Scotland for a 10 day holiday. The children stayed with host families and took part in a number of activities during the time they stayed, including trips to the Highlands and visiting places like Edinburgh Castle, Dynamic Earth etc.

In 2017 we took the same group, but this time with mothers and siblings, to a resort in Western Ukraine, where they worked with trauma experts to help deal with their losses. The feedback was amazing and some of the children really opened up during this stay.

We would love to bring children back to Scotland, but due to the stringent and expensive visa rules in the UK, it is far easier and cheaper for us to take the children to locations in Europe (the Schengen zone) or Ukraine and we have found that we can help more families this way.

We are now planning to take two groups of five families (10 in total) to Scandinavia in June of 2019 and Carpathians in October 2019, and hope our supporters will help us finance this, as they have in the past.

Any donation will make a difference for these families and any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. Even just sharing this post in your network shows that you care.

Thank you!