Achievements and challenges – what UMDP members remembered in 2024 (part 1)

At the end of 2024, we asked the members of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network how this year went for them, what were the achievements or failures. We received a lot of text, so we decided to divide the answers into several articles.

In the first part, nine organizations spoke about the past year.

International Charitable Organization “SOS Children’s Villages Charitable Foundation” Ukraine

In 2024, the foundation’s team completed preparations for transformation and restructuring of its work, formulating a three-year action plan. This became one of the main challenges, as it was necessary to take into account the rapidly changing conditions and peculiarities of wartime. We also took part in the development of the Strategy to ensure the right of every child in Ukraine to grow up in a family environment until 2028. SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine became one of theimplementing partners.

During the year, the organization managed to expand its geographic presence, with offices in 10 regions (Kherson region was added in 2024). In addition to regular program activities and emergency response, more than 15 grant projects were implemented.

In particular, an interactive book on protection from violence for children and youth was developed and presented.

And as part of the Silenced Voices communication campaign, the play The Best Day and Other Troubles was created in collaboration with playwright Maryna Smilyanets and the New Ukrainian Theater. The play is based on documentary stories of children who have recently graduated from Ukrainian orphanages and is dedicated to the importance of reforming the system of care and support for children (deinstitutionalization), which aims to ensure the right of every child to a loving family

In 2024,SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine was ranked 15th out of the 50 largest charitable foundations in Ukraine in the Forbes Ukraine ranking.

International Charitable Organization “Partnership for Every Child”

This year, the “Partnership for Every Child” was devoted to the development of child foster care. The service was first launched in 96 communities of Ukraine. They have 115 new families who are ready to help children whose families are in difficult life circumstances.

“We have achieved an important result – we have created new foster families where this service did not exist before, and expanded support in communities that already had such experience. These are not only stories about help, but also about changing the fate of hundreds of children,” said Vasylina Dybaylo, director of the Every Child Partnership.

Thanks to the project “A Family for Every Child: Development of Family Patronage,” which was launched in February 2024:

• The number of foster families in Ukraine has increased to 424, with 804 children being raised in them;
• 171 foster families were created this year alone, which is 30% of all those created since 2009.

These achievements were made possible by the joint work of social services, communities, international organizations, and foster families themselves.

“The situation in the country is difficult now, it’s hard for everyone, but most of all for children who have lost their families. We want to help them. We want them to get the support and warmth they need. We want Ukraine to have a future,” says Aksenia Bilan, an assistant to her mother, foster care provider Raisa Burmeha, about the decision to provide foster care services. This is the first time such a family-based form of upbringing has been introduced in the Novopil community of Kryvyi Rih district, Dnipro region.

The project “A Family for Every Child: Development of Family Based Care” is implemented jointly by UNICEF Ukraine, the Partnership “For Every Child”, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the National Social Service of Ukraine, the Coordination Center for the Development of Family-Based Care and Support, with the financial support of the European Union in Ukraine and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) Österreichische Botschaft Kyjiw / Austrian Embassy in Kyiv.

Charitable organization “Ukrainian Educational Platform” (UEP)

In 2024, the OOP team implemented the largest sub-grant regional project in Ukraine funded by DCA/NCA to support socially important initiatives in Mykolaiv region. We implemented 66 local social initiatives within the region and provided mentoring and administrative support to local non-profit organizations. Also this year, a sub-grant project was completed, which lasted from last year in 11 regions, and within which 79 local social initiatives were implemented.

The OSCs also provided support for crisis response in the frontline regions. Five new psychosocial support centers were opened in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Sumy regions. These initiatives were implemented with the financial support of the Humanitarian Foundation for Ukraine (HFU).

Also in 2024, we continued to implement the SPILNO project with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). UOP is implementing it in four regions: Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia. The main goal of the project is to support and develop family self-sufficiency. It includes 5 components:

1. Children’s Points TOGETHER, where a social work specialist, a speech therapist and a psychologist work with children on a daily basis and provide counseling for parents.

2. Trainings for social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, parents and those who work or care for children. The topics of the trainings cover a wide range of knowledge and are formed in accordance with the challenges of today.

3. Mine safety training.

4. Maintaining a hotline for support for children.

5. Activities and trainings under the “Hugs” component aimed at supporting alternative forms of upbringing and implemented in the communities of Kharkiv region.

Each component creates an opportunity to help those in difficult life circumstances, improve the knowledge and skills of specialists, and build a society of mutual understanding.

The largest event organized by the UOP was the forum “Country of Responsible: The Power of Cross-Sectoral Cooperation”. The forum brought together more than 150 representatives of international and local non-governmental organizations, local and state authorities, and religious communities in Kharkiv.

All-Ukrainian public organization “Magnolia”

In 2024, the organization celebrated its 19th anniversary. Among the various areas of work this year, the team implemented the area of combating international crime (child porn on the Internet). In the course of the work, they faced a challenging task – training and certification of analysts according to Interpol standards.

The difficulty was that, despite the full support of government agencies, we did not have a single penny of funding for this area. But even the absence of donors did not prevent us from realizing this goal. And now the Magnolia NGO represents Ukraine, which has become the 55th country in the world to join the INHOPE International Association.

“We have effective IT tools to stop and investigate crimes of sexual abuse of children on the Internet. Thanks to our analysts, together with specialists from the Cyberpolice, in the second half of 2024 alone, we managed to block 742 sources of child porn content and launch criminal investigations,” says Maryna Lypovetska, Head of the Magnolia Child Tracing Service, member of the Board of the International Federation of Missing Children Europe of the All-Ukrainian NGO Magnolia.

International Charitable Foundation “Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health”, Representative Office of HealthRight International (Right to Health) in Ukraine

In 2024, we helped over 138 thousand beneficiaries, including 31,214 children. All work with clients over the past year in numbers is more than 404 thousand psychosocial support services.

The work with children includes individual counseling, art therapy and non-formal education classes that help restore their psycho-emotional state, integrate into new communities and adapt to modern realities.

“In order to effectively support children affected by war, it is necessary to create an integrated system that combines mental health, education and health care. Such systems should be based on international practices and help strengthen the capacity of communities. This work requires a comprehensive approach, and our team continues to make efforts to help children recover and return to normal life in the current conditions,” said Galyna Skipalska, Director of HealthRight International (Right to Health) in Ukraine and Executive Director of the ICF “Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health”.

During 2024, the team of the ICF “Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health” and the Representative Office of HealthRight International (Right to Health) implemented more than 20 projects, signed memoranda of cooperation with 6 national and 23 regional organizations, including public authorities, NGOs, educational institutions and medical institutions.

Over the year, we managed to open new safe spaces and social apartments. They are aimed not only at supporting women but also children. Thanks to this and other initiatives, more than 400 new jobs were created in different regions of Ukraine. This achievement is especially important in a time of war, when every opportunity to maintain economic stability and provide people with jobs is crucial.

For the international campaign “16 Days Against Violence”, which started on November 25, the International Charitable Foundation “Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health” held the first large-scale Ukrainian initiative that brought together famous people and women who have overcome difficult life challenges.

Ukraine’s first “Women’s Power Alley” was planted in Yunist Park in Kyiv. The cherry blossom alley has become a symbol of resilience, revival, and the fight against violence. This unique event was entered into the National Register of Records of Ukraine as the record for “The largest number of women victims of violence who planted a cherry blossom alley.”

To draw attention to the problem of violence, in December, the premiere of the play Insect by Lena Kudaieva took place. The event was supported by The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and held in cooperation with the Babylon Folk Student Theater.

“Maybe someone recognized themselves, friends or family in this play. But most of these stories remain hidden – violence is often silent and lonely. The task of our team is to give a voice to those who suffer. We have been working for more than 16 years to create safe spaces for women and girls: day centers, social apartments, mobile teams, and online platforms. Together with our partners, we change lives, and every story we save is our common victory,” says Galyna Skipalska.

The stories are available here:

NGO “All-Ukrainian Public Center “Volunteer”

In 2024, we implemented seven initiatives aimed at supporting children and families affected by the war, ensuring the safety of children in cyberspace, raising awareness of social risks, and developing the professional competencies of specialists in the field of psychosocial support and child-friendly justice.

The organization’s greatest achievements:

1. Development of services and social services in communities, expanding access to them for children and families with children:
   
   Over the past year, the organization has implemented projects that have had a significant impact on the lives of children from vulnerable categories, providing them with psychosocial support and expanding access to some social services.
   
   The largest of which is the project to provide psychosocial assistance and support to children and adults “RIGHT TOGETHER”, the development of parents’ clubs in communities, the development of Resilience Centers in Kharkiv region, and the creation of conditions for the introduction of social mediation services in Ukrainian communities.

2. Influence on state policy in the field of child-friendly justice:
   
   One of the key achievements is participation in the development of child protection policies, in particular through the implementation of child-friendly justice standards in criminal and civil proceedings; development of specialization of judges for family and children’s affairs together with state partners; support for psychologists involved in criminal proceedings involving children through regional/interregional centers for free legal aid.
   

3. Training and methodological support for specialists:
   This year was devoted to creating and implementing modern standards and effective tools in the law enforcement system of Ukraine to ensure the safety of children in the digital environment, thus, a manual for training police officers of various structural units on these issues was developed and tested, as well as a manual for their work with children in grades 1-11 “Your Safety on the Internet”.

Changes that have been implemented:

• In the face of a full-scale invasion, we were able to adapt the programs of the Volunteer Center to the new realities, responding quickly to the needs of children and parents, and form a team of 200 psychologists who provide psychological assistance and psychosocial support throughout Ukraine;
• together with partners, continue to make justice more child-friendly, in particular by enhancing the professionalism of psychologists involved in proceedings involving children, as well as developing the capacity of other categories of specialists involved in criminal proceedings;
• launched a pilot project to introduce the specialization of judges in family and children’s affairs.

We remind you that on December 10, the results of the project “Empowering Law Enforcement to Combat Violence Against Children on the Internet” were presented . It was implemented by a consortium of organizations: The All-Ukrainian Public Center “Volunteer”, the Ukrainian Foundation for the Well-Being of Children, and LHSI “Social Initiatives for Occupational Safety and Health”. The project managed to bring together key “field” players in the field of child safety in the digital environment – juvenile police, cyber police, educators, NGOs, and children themselves – who worked on solutions in their field for three years.

Charitable Foundation “Volunteers: Adults to Children”

In 2024, the organization cooperated with two new partners – the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Charitable Organization “SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine”. Thanks to this cooperation and joint projects, the organization managed to support more than 50 family-based foster care facilities and find families for more than 60 children.

“Over the year, we have had many different stories that have touched us to the core. One of them is about a seriously ill boy. No one wanted to take him, everyone just felt sorry for him. However, there were parents who were not afraid of the challenge. Having met the boy, they said: “He is ours.” Now the boy has his own father, his own mother, his own brothers and sisters. Such profound changes in the lives of children are the highest achievement of our team. Especially when we see how children change for the better, their behavior and attitude,” says Victoria Tyshchenko, President of the Charitable Foundation Volunteers: Adults for Children”.

The professional challenge of 2024 for the foundation’s team was to establish cooperation with children’s services as part of a new grant project. The fate of children depends on the specialists of this service. Viktoriia notes that it was sometimes difficult to find a line of cooperation that suited both parties.

Charitable Foundation “Ridni”

They joined the UMDP only this year and have already become one of the active partners of the Network members.

Key achievements of the fund in 2024:

1. The Ridni Charitable Foundation has become a member of the GlobalGiving community, which allows us to attract support from all over the world.

2. Launched a project with the British government to strengthen the capacity of the Family Support Service department of the Ridni Social Support Center, implemented in cooperation with the Department of Children’s Services of the Lviv City Council and the Ridni Social Support Center for Children and Families

3. The podcast “Finally We Met” was made available on the platform “Ukraine for Every Child” and popular streaming services (ApplePodcast, Spotify, SoundCloud, MEGOGO and NV Podcasts).

4. We held an all-Ukrainian art festival “Create the World” for children from vulnerable categories and reached 500 children.

5. We implemented the Do Good with Ri and Di and Coffee with St. Nicholas campaigns to support children and youth from vulnerable groups.

6. We held a charity exhibition “My Territory” in partnership with CIM Mercury, created a charity puzzle in partnership with ORNER, designed unique T-shirts in collaboration with GIDNIST, and launched a charity initiative to support 4 vulnerable families in partnership with CICI COCO.

Key figures for the year:

• More than 9000 children and their families received material, educational and psychological support;
• 28 children found their families;
• 30 families, became candidates for adoption and other family-based foster care;
• More than 500 professionals working with children have received the knowledge and psychological products of the foundation, providing support to more than 1000 children across Ukraine;
• 337,129 people were reached by the media campaign on adoption and family-based care.

NGO “Emmaus”

In 2024, the organization resumed offline work in Kharkiv. However, in the spring, the security issue became acute – since March, the city has been under constant shelling by the KGB.

In the summer, the team moved online for a while. We started looking for opportunities to create a safe space. First, we sent an official request to the SES. We asked for recommendations on the requirements for a location where we could work with children and young people with disabilities.

“We were asked a very tough but direct question, whether we were really interested, whether we really wanted to keep children safe so that the SES would not have to pull our children out of the rubble later. After we said that our priority was the safety of children, we were given a list of the safest places,” recalls Olga Rayeva, Operations Director of Emmaus.

One of them turned out to be a radiation shelter of one of the city’s universities. The organization made an official request to the university administration, and after a round of negotiations, the Emmaus team was granted the premises. Now the experts work with children in the safest conditions for Kharkiv.

Read more about the activities of the Emmaus NGO and their projects to help families with children with disabilities and boarding school graduates in the the text of the Nakypilo publication.