Stanytsia Luhanska, where SOS Children’s Villages is running its emergency response programme, has been closed and the staff have been evacuated.
The office and social centre in Stanytsia Luhanska closed on 17-February due to intense shelling. The team took action according to pre-established relocation plans and relocated to Sievierodonetsk. Eight staff members and their families relocated, while one remained in Stanytsia Luhanska. They have been provided with rented apartments in Sievierodonetsk. Remote support to the families supported in the emergency response programme will continue to the extent possible. SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine is planning to provide financial support to 55 children and their families who were part of the emergency response programme on the contact line in the past. This financial aid will mainly be used to cover transportation costs for these families in case they decide to evacuate to safer places.
Due to heavy shelling, it is difficult to predict if the contact line will move any time soon.
Although advised by SOS Children’s Villages to relocate, six foster parents and 14 children decided to stay in Luhansk region for the time being, while the remainder have moved away temporarily, to help ease the stress on children and families. SOS Children’s Villages is staying in constant touch with the families who remained in Luhansk and is preparing support in case they decide to evacuate in the coming days.
As the military tension in the region continue to escalate, SOS Children’s Villages has advised all remaining foster families and all staff to relocate from eastern Ukraine.
The teams are preparing the logistics for this, including arranging for accommodation in SOS Children’s Village Brovary and nearby, and transport for the evacuation.
SOS Children’s Villages in Ukraine
SOS Children’s Villages in Ukraine SOS Children’s Villages began working in Ukraine in 2003, and in 2010 opened the first SOS Children’s Village in Brovary, Kyiv region. The work in Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, began in 2012, and was reorganised in 2014 to respond to the needs of children and families on both sides of the contact line. The programme in Luhansk City (the non-government[1]controlled area) is to close by April 2022.
