Your Support Raises Awareness & Fuels Efforts to BRING UKRAINIAN CHILDREN HOME
“It’s hard not to be afraid. These women have to travel alone while the men stay behind to fight. Just before the mothers leave, they get a safety briefing where they learn how to craft cover stories for when inevitably they are interrogated by Russian forces.” (Excerpt from 60 Minutes segment)
CHILDREN WRONGFULLY SEPARATED FROM THEIR FAMILIES:
The hard work toward family reunification and healing
At the onset of the war in Ukraine, approximately 20,000 Ukrainian children were deported to Russia, with poorer families and children from orphanages in eastern Ukraine heavily targeted. These children are currently trapped in Russia and Russian-occupied territories.
Some were sent to attend summer camp in a “safer” zone—an opportunity to escape the horrors of war and just enjoy being a kid for a while—only to be told they could not return home by Russian occupiers. Many were forcibly taken during Russian occupation and hauled off.
Many of these children have been separated from their families and trapped in Russia for well over a year now.
They’ve been forbidden from speaking their language, subjected to Russian teachings and drills, and placed in crowded institutions… highly at risk of being “adopted” by Russian families, even though their families in Ukraine are still living!
These children have faced immense trauma, often manipulated into believing their parents no longer want them and their homeland no longer exists.
With your support, AFFEO partner Nikolai Kuleba is bringing these children back from Russia – going to great lengths to locate and bring them home to their families in Ukraine. It’s a complex mission that requires thousands of miles of travel through multiple nations and checkpoints.
“The Director (of the Russian orphanage) said to me, ‘He is mine. I am his guardian.’ And I said, ‘But I’m his grandmother. You have no right, because he has a biological grandmother who will take him back. This is my child.'” — Polina, Ukrainian Grandmother who, with Save Ukraine’s help, fought for 70+ days to get her grandson back from Russia
So far, your gifts have supported the rescue and rehabilitation of over 200 Ukrainian children. You are helping fuel efforts to raise global awareness, which in turn sustains these important rescue efforts.
Because of your partnership, the Save Ukraine team has identified and located many more children being forcibly held. Your gifts can support ongoing rescue missions and the rehabilitation of children once they are back home, until all Ukrainian children are safe with their parents and caregivers again.
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” – Psalm 82:3-4 ESV
*All gifts given before midnight on 12/31/2023 will be doubled, up to $35,000.