Emergency Backpack: Caring for Children in War

1. Context and Rationale

As Ukraine continues to face the devastating consequences of war, millions of children are experiencing disrupted education, displacement, and loss of stability. For children in family-type orphanages, special schools, and displaced households, the challenge is particularly acute: without access to basic school supplies, safe learning environments, and psychosocial support, their right to education and equal opportunities is gravely compromised.

Our project responds directly to these urgent needs. By equipping children with essential learning and creative tools, ensuring that shelters are suitable for education during air raids, and providing psychosocial support resources, we are working to safeguard not only their academic progress but also their dignity, emotional resilience, and future prospects.

2. Overall Impact (June–September 2025)

During the reporting period, our project reached over 250 children across 19 institutions in nine regions of Ukraine.

Key Data:

• Total institutions supported: 19

• Total children supported: 247

• Total value of assistance provided: ≈ $7,000 USD

3. Geographic Coverage

The project provided aid across a wide geographic footprint, ensuring inclusivity and equity of access:

• Central Ukraine: Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava

• Northern Ukraine: Sumy, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr

• Western Ukraine: Rivne, Khmelnytskyi

• Southern Ukraine: Mykolaiv

This distribution highlights our ability to respond to both frontline-affected and host communities, reaching displaced children as well as those in specialized institutions.

4. Beneficiary Profiles and Institutions Supported Family-Type Homes for Orphans and Displaced Families

We provided assistance to more than a dozen family-type orphanages, many hosting displaced children from the most war-affected regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson). Examples include:

• DBST Luchezka (Kyiv region): 9 children displaced from Donetsk, received full creative kits (paints, clay, markers, drawing albums).

• DBST Minchenko (Sumska → Kyiv region): 10 children from displaced families.

• DBST Tarusina (Donetsk → Kyiv region): 10 children displaced from Kramatorsk.

These homes are lifelines for children who have lost their homes and communities, and school supplies here double as therapeutic resources for coping with trauma.

Special Educational Institutions

• Denishivska Special School (Zhytomyr region): 88 children received a comprehensive package including notebooks, geometry sets, art supplies, and drawing albums. For children with special educational needs, these resources are essential not only for learning but also for cognitive and emotional development.

Local NGOs and Community Partners

• NGO “Seven Fields” (50 children): Supported to expand community-based access to educational and creative resources.

Other Family Homes Across Regions

Support ranged from smaller households (4–8 children) to larger DBSTs hosting up to 11 children each. Many families were displaced multiple times before finding temporary stability in safer regions, which increases both their vulnerability and their reliance on external aid.

5. Types of Support Provided

Our “Full Portfolio” approach ensures that each child receives not just basic school items but also tools for creativity, resilience, and self-expression. Items distributed included:

• Educational Materials: exercise books (lined, squared), drawing albums, white/colored cardboard, geometry sets (including compasses).

• Creative Resources: watercolor paints, modeling clay, markers, colored pencils, craft paper.

• Psychosocial Tools: art therapy materials that help children express emotions, reduce stress, and foster resilience.

This multi-dimensional support aligns with the European standards of inclusive and holistic education, ensuring that children’s academic, emotional, and creative needs are met simultaneously.

6. Psychosocial and Emotional Outcomes

Beyond physical supplies, the project plays a vital role in strengthening children’s psychosocial well-being. Access to creative resources allows children to process their emotions, build resilience, and develop a sense of normalcy in an otherwise disrupted life. 

Children and caregivers repeatedly express their gratitude, sharing that these resources bring joy, hope, and a sense of being remembered. Teachers and guardians note that children are more motivated, engaged, and emotionally stable when they have the tools to learn and create.

7. Challenges and Remaining Needs

While we have achieved significant progress, challenges remain substantial:

• Scale of demand: Over 2,000 children are still awaiting assistance.

• Funding gap: Approximately $25,000 USD is urgently required to cover these unmet needs.

• Sustainability: Continuous replenishment is needed, as children consume school supplies quickly and shelters require ongoing equipping.

Without further support, children risk facing renewed barriers to education, exclusion from safe learning environments, and heightened psychosocial stress.

The summer months of 2025 have shown both the resilience of Ukrainian children and the profound impact that donor-supported interventions can have. 

However, our mission is far from complete. Thousands of children remain in need, and the future of their education—and their emotional well-being—depends on our collective response.

We invite you to continue standing with Ukraine’s children:

• Ensure safe and uninterrupted education during crisis.

• Create equal opportunities for every child to learn and grow.

• Support psychosocial recovery through creative and emotional resources.

On behalf of the Blagomay Charity Fund, and from every child whose life has been touched by your generosity, we extend our deepest gratitude. Your support does not only change lives—it saves them!

Together, we are building a foundation for hope, resilience, and a brighter future for Ukraine’s most vulnerable children.

Thanks to your generous support, 151 children from the "Nadiya" Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Educational and Rehabilitation Center in Cherkasy region, Ukraine, have received essential educational and creative supplies worth 66,486 UAH through the Emergency Backpack project. These children now have access to much-needed materials, including notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, colored paper, sketch pads, markers, and paint sets – giving them the tools to continue learning, expressing themselves, and reclaiming a sense of normalcy despite the ongoing war.

This initiative is part of the broader Humanitarian Response Program of the Charity Fund “Blagomay”, which is dedicated to supporting vulnerable children across Ukraine during times of crisis.

Q1 2025 Humanitarian Program Impact:

• 1,732 children reached

• 21 institutions supported

• Total value of aid distributed: 1,163,374 UAH

Our beneficiaries include:

• Children with special educational needs

• Children from family-type orphanages

• Internally displaced children

• Families who lost their homes due to war

Many of the children we support have experienced unimaginable hardship. They have been forced to evacuate from their homes, leaving behind their schools, friends, routines, and communities. The trauma of war—air raids, displacement, loss of loved ones, and the constant fear of danger—has deeply impacted their mental and emotional well-being. These children are growing up in an environment of instability, with limited access to education, safe spaces, and support systems.

The situation is especially severe for children with special educational needs (SEN). In the 2023–2024 academic year alone, over 40,000 SEN students were enrolled in general secondary education institutions in Ukraine, reflecting a significant increase from previous years. In preschool education, more than 11,200 children with SEN were registered in 2024—nearly 2.5 times more than in 2019. Altogether, over 60,000 children with special educational needs live in Ukraine today, many of whom require tailored support, rehabilitation, and safe learning environments.

According to UNICEF, the full-scale war in Ukraine has disrupted education for approximately 5.3 million children, primarily due to ongoing hostilities, damage to infrastructure, and power outages. In addition, the war has led to a growing number of children becoming orphans, increasing their vulnerability and dependence on institutional and charitable support.

In this reality, where even the basic right to education is under threat, providing school supplies and creative tools is much more than material aid—it is a source of hope, dignity, and healing. Through each backpack delivered, we offer children the opportunity to learn, express themselves, and rebuild their emotional resilience.

From the entire team at Blagomay, and on behalf of every child we’ve reached — thank you for your continued care, compassion, and action. Your support is not only life-changing—it is lifesaving. Together, we are restoring childhoods and shaping a more hopeful future for the most vulnerable children in Ukraine.