«We are internally displaced people, we moved within the Kharkiv region on February 24, 2022. I discovered the “Perlynka” center thanks to word of mouth, because I was first and foremost looking for a social environment for my daughter”. Oleksiy, Sofia’s father, tells the story in a testimony collected by Terre des hommes. «Before, we lived in a neighborhood with two active schools; now we live on a street where there is only one other child his age. Sofia had started to withdraw into herself and speak less. My wife and I struggled to understand her and communication was interrupted: we are always at work and she is constantly on digital devices. Online school is helpful, but without physical contact with adults and peers, she felt isolated. After her second lesson at the center, she came out jumping for joy. Now look forward to the activity days: he mentally prepares himself, carefully chooses the clothes to wear and can’t wait to meet his new friends. For her it is a great event that fills her days. He loves drawing and sculpting very much, he works very hard. Thanks to this path, I started talking more with my daughter again: we have more dialogue and less conflicts.”
Sofia, Oleksiy’s daughter, is one of the Ukrainian girls and boys who, during the war, found welcome and a safe place in the child friendly space (child-friendly spaces) and community centres that the NGO Lands of menengaged in child protection programs, has carried out in several particularly critical areas of the country, close to the front. In these spaces, children and adolescents receive structured psychosocial support and social-emotional learning paths to process traumas related to war, bombings and displacement.
A displaced Ukrainian girl.
(EDOARDO MARANGON)
In every conflict and humanitarian emergency situation in the world, the first victims, the most vulnerable, are minors. “Children are suffering a lot due to the war and the difficult information context in which we live. They are subjected to severe stress which also affects their academic performance”, says Iryna, mother of Oleksandr (known as Sasha), a child who attended the child friendly space “Keep me safe” (“keep me safe”) from Kharkiv. «For this reason, I consider the lessons at the center as a form of preventive care for my son», says Iryna again. «Here Sasha can unload psychologically; specialists help him solve his problems and better understand himself and his behaviors. Even though he sometimes struggles to express his emotions, he has found a place where he can learn to manage them. My son participates with great enthusiasm, especially in manual activities. During the first lessons they created a small toy “helper” called “Helper”. He still keeps it on his desk and helps him while he does his homework. Furthermore, here he is able to make friends and interact well with other children.”
The large-scale war, which began with the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, has had and continues to have a devastating impact on the little ones, on their well-being, their health, their growth. According to a Unicef report, almost 700 minors have died as a result of the conflict, with a 10% increase in child casualties during 2025, the deadliest year for Ukrainian civilians since the war began. More than 2 thousand children were injured. Almost 2.6 million minors are still displaced, more than 790 thousand are internally displaced in Ukraine, approximately 1 million 800 thousand are refugees abroad.
Inside the country thousands of minors live in conditions of stress and trauma caused by violence, constant terror caused by alarms and bombings, from the incessant condition of insecurity and precariousness, from the absorption of stress, discomfort and worries of their family members. Forced displacement is among the main risk factors, aggravated by the fact that many children have experienced bereavement in the family, have lost one or both of their parents, they have their fathers busy as soldiers at the front, they found themselves living with other family figures, such as grandparents or uncles. This serious situation has led to the increase, among minors, of psychological disorders, such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Boys and girls in one of child friendly space of Terre des hommes.
(ISABELLA WHALE)
In Ukraine, Fondazione Terre des Hommes Italia operates with various projects with particular attention to children, women, people with disabilities, refugees and vulnerable families. The organization operates in particular in the areas of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumi and Odessa and the activities are aimed at supporting over 22,000 vulnerable people, including minors, displaced people and people with disabilities.
To reach the most isolated and rural areas, the organization also activates mobile units that guarantee life-saving services, basic health and psychological first aid to those who do not have the possibility and means to move. Terre des hommes also provides for the distribution of basic necessities (food and clothing) and direct economic aid programs for families in extremely marginalized conditions. It also offers psychological consultancy services for caregivers, fundamental for the resilience of the family unit. And it invests in strengthening local capacities and skills, with the training of authorities, medical personnel and local operators on topics such as child protection, social inclusion and the prevention of gender violence.
“Our team has never abandoned Ukraine,” he explains Stefano Antichidelegate of Terre des Hommes in Ukraine, «not even during the most difficult moments, such as in these winter months where temperatures have dropped to -25 degrees and Russian attacks have devastated the electricity grid and heating plants, putting millions of vulnerable people at risk.”
Natalia, little Mariia’s aunt and guardian, took the little girl to the children’s center “Keep me safe” from Kharkiv because he had heard good things about it from parents of other children. «I wanted specialists to address Mariia’s anxiety. His mother, my sister, died of cancer soon after he was born; the baby was born prematurely at seven months and spent a long time in intensive care with discouraging prognoses”, says Natalia. «Mariia has always known that I am not her biological mother and this situation worries her a lot. I knew we could get individual psychological counseling here and was looking for advice on how to manage her anxiety and how to talk to her about her mother. Mariia is very shy, sometimes she hides behind me on the street. Since he has been attending classes, his emotional state improved. She immediately told me that the teachers are very good and that everyone treated her with extreme kindness.”
Terre des Hommes is an organization founded more than 60 years ago to protect children around the world from any form of violence or abuse, guarantee every child the right to health, the right to education, promoting equal, inclusive and quality education, the right to freedom, gender equality, to improve the lives of millions of girls around the world. Terre des hommes is also active in Italy, where, among other things, it deals with protection of migrant minors, fight against child poverty, education and youth participation through innovative educational paths and initiatives to encourage the construction of a more inclusive, fair and equal society. For information you can visit the site.
