Supporting the Victims of Protests in Ukraine

“Hello! I am Chaplinska Violetta. I thank you for your help. I can read and write in English. I like playing English games and singing songs. With best wishes, Violetta”.

While reading this letter and looking at this photograph it becomes easy to picture a little cheerful girl that likes learning, playing and dreaming.

However, things were very different 3 years ago. As you know, over the end of January and throughout February 2014 over 100 persons (including Violetta’s father) were killed during the massive protests that took place in Kyiv and all over the territory of Ukraine. Today, the 20^th of February, is the Heavenly Hundred Memorial Day in Ukraine, the day when we tribute honor to Violetta’s and other children’s parents. And this is the perfect opportunity to tell you what you have helped achieve.

Immediately after the tragic events the initiative “Maidan Family” was started. It was administered by Pryirpinnia Community Charity Fund and collected UAH 50 millions in donations, which were used to support families of those who lost their dear ones or were injured during the protests. The costs donated by the GlobalGiving community helped us support families of the Heavenly Hundred by helping their children get high quality education, which they themselves would not be able to pay for.

Thanks to your compassion and generous support, Violetta has not only received additional English classes that will allow her pursue bigger, more ambitious dreams in the future, but she is also taught with an individual approach (which is impossible in public schools) that can ensure that she will master English in depths. At the moment she is in her second year of learning and she is already making progress being able to write a whole letter to thank you for helping her without any supervision. 

And there are more success stories that are waiting to be told. Over the next few weeks, we will tell you a couple of them to show the impact you helped creating.

And right now we want to share some general numbers and facts:

(1)  As of this moment, starting from December 2014, we provided private lessons and tutorship to 18 children whose fathers died during the tragic events that occurred earlier that year.

(2)  2 children received study assistance for 2,5 school years (18-19 months of tutorial),

1 child – for 2 school years (15 months),

3 children – for 1,5 school years (11-12 months),

7 children – for 1 school year (7-8 months),

5 children received a total of 1 to 7 months of study assistance (over the course of 1-2 years).

(3)  The subjects that children received assistance with were mostly foreign languages (English, German, French) and math. However, some children were tutored in chemistry, Ukrainian language, literature and history and some received private choreography, arts and crafts lessons. Most children were taught one subject, but those who needed more received complex tutorials consisting of 2, 3 or even 4 subjects.

Having all of this in mind we would like to thank you for providing support to this cause and thus build a better future for Ukraine. Of course, so much more has to be done. In spite revolutionary changes, a lot of the “old” social sphere issues are still in place negatively influencing the lives of Ukrainian children. We will stay committed to solving these issues to help the children have the kind of future that is not limited in opportunities and we kindly ask you to consider giving, in order to help other causes we work on, including Youth 4 Youth and Vital Emergency Fostering projects.

Thank you once again for all the support you provided to this project.

Today our gratefulness is also sent to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of better future for Ukrainian children and our thoughts are with their families.

Warm regards,

Kateryna Snisarenko

Project Communications Officer

• Violetta's Thank You Letter (PDF)