Warm Winter

Overview of the Reporting Period

Following one of the harshest winters Ukraine has experienced since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Warm Winter project continued its work through the spring and early summer of 2026. This period allowed the team to consolidate the results of the 2025–2026 winter campaign, complete final deliveries, verify institutional needs, and begin early preparation for the next cold season. Experience has shown that winter readiness cannot begin when the first frosts arrive — damaged energy infrastructure, recurring blackouts, and strained institutional budgets mean that children's facilities must build up their resilience months in advance.

Cumulative Results of the Warm Winter Campaign

Since the start of the campaign, the Warm Winter project has delivered:

• 86 targeted assistance packages to children's institutions and family-based care settings across Ukraine;
• support for approximately 4,460 beneficiaries — children and their caregivers;
• humanitarian assistance with a total value of more than 2,550,000 UAH (approx. USD 61,000);
• of this, 45 deliveries reaching over 2,500 children, with a total value of nearly 1,475,000 UAH, were funded directly through the generous support of the GlobalGiving community.

Geographic Coverage

The project was implemented in more than 15 regions of Ukraine, with a deliberate focus on frontline and heavily affected areas, as well as communities hosting internally displaced families. Assistance reached institutions and families in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk (Kramatorsk), Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions — areas regularly exposed to shelling and severe energy disruptions — as well as in the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Chernivtsi, and Zakarpattia regions, which host large numbers of displaced children.

Types of Institutions Supported

Assistance was directed to the categories of children who face the highest risks during energy and heating disruptions:

• 49 family-type children's homes and foster families (DBST), raising orphans and children deprived of parental care, including displaced families from occupied and frontline territories;
• 15 centers for social and psychological rehabilitation and social service centers;
• 10 special schools and educational-rehabilitation centers for children with special educational needs;
• specialized baby homes caring for infants and very young children, including a facility in Bila Tserkva supporting 45 children;
• kindergartens and community institutions in affected areas, including Sumy city.

What Was Delivered

Each assistance package was based on a verified, itemized needs assessment prepared together with the receiving institution. Across the campaign, the project provided:

• warm bedding: over 40 deliveries included warm blankets, and more than 30 included fleece throws, along with pillows, mattresses, and bed linen sets;
• winter clothing and footwear: warm jackets, winter overalls, boots, sweaters, hoodies, pajamas, thermal socks, and sports suits;
• heating and energy solutions: more than 30 deliveries included electric convector heaters, and portable EcoFlow power stations were provided to institutions in areas with the most severe blackouts, ensuring that heating, lighting, and medical equipment could keep running during outages;
• towels, hygiene-related textiles, and other essential household items.

Recent Activities: Preparing for the Next Winter

In June 2026, the project carried out a new round of off-season procurement, made possible by our corporate partner Dow Europe. Three institutions — a specialized baby home in Bila Tserkva, a special school in the Cherkasy region, and a family-type children's home in the frontline Sumy region — received warm clothing, bedding, blankets, and convector heaters for 105 children, with a total value of over 220,000 UAH. By procuring supplies in the off-season, the project avoids pre-winter price surges and logistical bottlenecks and ensures that institutions enter the next heating season fully prepared.

Qualitative Impact

Partner institutions consistently reported that the assistance allowed them to maintain safe, warm, and stable conditions for children even during prolonged blackouts. Facilities equipped with backup heating and power sources were able to continue educational, care, and rehabilitation activities without interruption. For foster families raising eight to ten children, the provision of bedding, winter clothing, and heaters removed a significant financial burden and gave caregivers confidence that the children in their care are protected regardless of what the next heating season brings. Beyond physical warmth, this stability directly supports children's emotional well-being, their ability to learn, and their overall resilience. Every delivery is documented with acceptance acts and photo reports, ensuring full transparency and accountability to our donors.

Partnerships and Support

This work was made possible thanks to the collective efforts of committed partners and donors, including the GlobalGiving community — the largest single source of funding for this campaign — as well as Dow Europe, Apteka 911.ua, Oleksandr Katsuba, Olena Mykytina and her fundraising campaign in Germany for heaters for Ukrainian children, MAGNAT, Operator Rynku, and numerous individual contributors.

Looking Ahead

In the coming months, the Blagomay Charity Fund will continue systematic needs assessments among partner institutions and foster families, expand off-season procurement of warm clothing, bedding, and heating equipment ahead of the 2026–2027 cold season, and prioritize frontline and heavily affected regions where energy disruptions are most severe. The needs of Ukrainian children remain urgent — energy insecurity, infrastructure damage, and displacement continue to affect thousands of families and institutions. We invite you to stand with us so that when the next winter comes, no child faces the cold alone.

Thank you for your trust, solidarity, and continued support.