Protect Children from Freezing in Ukraine

Dear Friends,

Thank you for supporting vulnerable children and families in Ukraine through one of the hardest winters of the full-scale war.

Repeated attacks on the power grid put hospitals at serious risk: even facilities classified as critical infrastructure and equipped with generators faced the threat of unexpected blackouts that could compromise their most sophisticated life-saving equipment. With contributions from you and other kind-hearted supporters, 14 medical and rehabilitation facilities in Kyiv, Dnipro, Nikopol, Kherson, Odesa and Lviv received backup power systems for equipment, especially important for intensive care units.

At the Dacha Family Houses, children and their caregivers had reliable heating throughout the cold season and warm blankets for the colder bomb shelters where they regularly had to seek safety during constant attacks.

In frontline areas such as Kherson, families with disabled children needed urgent help heating their homes after local infrastructure was severely damaged. The region's flat, treeless steppe landscape made firewood impossible to source, so we found an alternative: sunflower husk fuel pellets, an efficient and sustainable solid biofuel. You can see one of the children from Kherson in the photo: his family had what they needed to stay warm through the winter.

As Olha, our local collaborator in Kherson, shares:

"When the Zaporuka team called asking what we needed for this winter, I didn't hesitate: fuel pellets. People use them to heat apartments too, with small portable stoves. Finding money is one part of the problem. The other is sourcing the materials and getting them to Kherson. Not everyone is willing to come here. And when a delivery arrives, it has to be unloaded quickly as Russian drones are constantly overhead attacking civilians. Zaporuka responded immediately. It was practical help, but also an important signal: we have not been forgotten. Thank you, from the heart."

This support reached many children and families – in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, Dacha Family Houses and their own homes – who continue to live through war.

Thank you for being there when it mattered most.