The Ukrainian children from Lwiątko have returned to the orphanage in Zhytomyr

Ukraine

Since the escalation of the war in February 2022, until mid-October 2024, nearly 6.8 million refugees4 from Ukraine have been recorded – 92 per cent of them in Europe. Inside Ukraine, an estimated 3.6 million people5 remain internally displaced as of October 2024.

Among the most vulnerable are also an estimated 12.6 million as of March 2025 people who were not displaced from their homes but who have been directly affected by the war – they have been wounded, their homes have been destroyed, their family members died.

Civilian infrastructure, such as power grids, water supply networks. hospitals transportation infrastructure, have been targeted by the daily missile attacks, severely disrupting people’s lives across the whole country, and particularly in the East.

About 3 600 educational institutions, including nearly

2 000 schools,

have suffered damage with some 371 educational facilities totally destroyed since the escalation of the war.
There were over

2 100 attacks

on healthcare facilities, which have claimed at least 197 lives, including those of health workers and patients, and injured many more, severely disrupting health services.

17.05.2022

The 55 children who took refuge in the Lwiątko rural kindergarten at the beginning of the war, and to whom YOU provided security in the form of food and solutions to everyday problems, are now safely back in their home in Zhytomyr. As we had promised, we stayed with them until the very end!

The Lwiątko kindergarten is a small building in the middle of the Ukrainian countryside. Its principal offered the children from Zhytomyr a roof over their heads but could not afford anything else. When we visited them, it was clear that the next factory of good would be built right here, because apart from a roof, they needed food, clothes, cleaning products and basically everything.

The only belongings with which the children from the orphanage in Zhytomyr fled the bombs were their stories, as tragic and sad as the war itself. When they had finally been placed in a centre that was supposed to provide them with safety and professional help following domestic violence, Russian rockets fell on neighbouring buildings. They had to flee and hide for over two months in the western part of the country.

The home in Zhytomyr survived and the safety situation has improved enough for the children to return. They will be followed by one more of our shipments, carrying a supply of milk, clothes and shoes for the spring, so that we can bring one more smile to their faces. The children from Lwiątko are now back at home, and we are off to our next tasks. You will soon find out where we will be producing more good.

Will we ever meet the children from Lwiątko again? We have been invited to visit them in Zhytomyr, which we will soon do. They have also promised to keep in touch. They know that whenever they need something, we are ready to help.