Hope and Homes for Children’s emergency response in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania: Averting a child protection emergency of epic proportions

“I’m very proud of Moldovans because despite having very little, we managed to provide accommodation, hot meals or even just a welcoming smile or a comforting word to people who have left their homes.” – Dr Liliana Rotaru, Director, CCF Moldova, Hope and Homes for Children

As the invasion of Ukraine intensifies we are deeply concerned for our colleagues and the children and families whose lives are at risk in and around Ukraine’s borders. This is a fast-moving situation and we’re assessing and adapting our work in real time. We are a small organisation with limited resources, but we’re uniquely placed in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania to ensure those resources, skills and expertise protect children and families right now, and in the aftermath of this war.

Right now, 100,000 children remain warehoused in Ukraine’s orphanage system – a network of over 700 buildings (that’s more orphanages than England has hospitals). Despite being public buildings, they’ve been targeted by shells, missiles and illegal cluster bombs (this includes an orphanage in Vorzel – two nurseries in Chernihiv and Stanytsia Luhanska, and a school in Mariupol).  Already exposed to the neglect synonymous with these institutions, the vulnerability of the children locked in these buildings is increasing by the day. As fighting intensifies and curfews and migration increase, staff are fleeing. Large numbers of children are being left to face the dangers of war, alone.

Outside this system, millions more vulnerable families are being torn apart amid the chaos. As of 2 March 2022 we have seen over 115,000 refugees cross the border into neighbouring Moldova and a further 22,000 into Romania. These numbers are rapidly rising. Those who remain in Ukraine are facing hunger; they’re vulnerable to the elements in temporary shelters and have limited access to basics including water and sanitation.

This brutal invasion is not only exposing children and families to unimaginable harm right now, but will continue to do so for years to come. We must act now to avert a child protection emergency across Eastern Europe.

Hope and Homes for Children was born out of the Balkans Conflict 30 years ago. We’ve seen children left behind in warzones, to fend for themselves in bombed out orphanages. We’ve seen refugee children separated from families and thrown into dangerous orphanages far away from their homes. We cannot allow history to repeat itself in Ukraine, where for nearly 25 years we’ve been offering practical solutions to keep struggling families together, and working closely with the government to move children out of orphanages and into loving family environments.

We exist to positively impact the lives of children, and we are uniquely placed, in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania to bring our expertise to bear in ensuring the most vulnerable children and families are protected now and in the aftermath of this war.

What we’re doing right now:

In Ukraine

We have small teams in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

We remain concerned for the safety of our teams in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk. Our direct work with children and families is severely curtailed due to intensified fighting and increasing security uncertainty. So far, we’ve been able to maintain contact and we’re working closely with them to support and maintain their safety whilst working through our response in Ukraine and in bordering countries. At this stage, we strongly anticipate that as this crisis unfolds, the work of our team in Ukraine will take on even greater significance and importance. We intend to ensure they are ready and equipped to do all they can, when they can to champion and support the safety and protection of the 100,000 children left behind in the orphanage system.

In Dnipropetrovsk – the second largest Oblast in the country – our team are providing practical, life-saving support for children and vulnerable families. Through cash transfers and direct interventions we’ve helped families in rural areas access food, water, and protection. Working with local authorities, we’ve already rescued 55 children, including two disabled children who’d been abandoned, without adult supervision, in a hospital. Along with two babies, and 13 other children, they’re currently safe in a community centre, with food, medicine and trained social workers to care for them.

Update 3 March 2022: Overnight, as the situation deteriorated in Dnipro, our social workers supported the emergency evacuation of 70 children (including two babies and two disabled children). They’ve now left our community centre, where they’ve been hunkered down for the past seven days, and have been moved to a safer location. Working with the local authorities, we remain committed to protecting these children, for as long as it takes. Without generous donations from the public, our team simply wouldn’t be able to keep these children safe.

In neighbouring Moldova and Romania

As of 8 March 2022, over 225,000 refugees have crossed the border into Moldova, of whom around 14,000 will remain in the country.  Over 300,000 have crossed into Romania, with approximately 90,000 staying in Romania.  The rest are heading west to other countries. These numbers are set to soar.

Our teams’ fears of a child protection emergency of epic proportions, with child refugees at risk of trafficking, or being placed in overcrowded, understaffed and poorly resourced orphanages, are already materialising.

Alarming reports are already emerging about potentially dangerous and irresponsible mass evacuations of children from orphanages, to equally dangerous institutions in neighbouring countries, such as Poland.

Orphanages in warzones must be evacuated at the right time, in a planned, coordinated way, supported by the right professionals. Our colleagues are working to ensure, that where appropriate, safe evacuation of orphanages, including keeping siblings together, and careful tracking and accounting for every child is at the forefront of any action.

We are rapidly gearing up to use our unique experience to support the safe reception of children and families and to advocate for their protection in the longer-term.

Our teams in neighbouring countries are advocating to keep child refugees out of orphanages and instead placed in emergency foster care. Poland, Moldova and Romania are all signatories of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child, and so have a responsibility to keep children in families – never in orphanages.

In Moldova, we’ve already been called on by the ministry of social protection to directly support unaccompanied children with material and emotional support.

As part of a cross-organisational humanitarian effort coordinated by Unicef, we are supporting unaccompanied children and refugee families at a ‘Blue Dot’ emergency reception centre we’re establishing at Otaci, on the border with Ukraine, in coordination with UNICEF. Our child psychologists and social workers will provide round the clock care to unaccompanied children and refugee families at risk of trafficking, exploitation and other dangers. Half of our team are currently there; this will reach hundreds or thousands of children.

The government has organised a collective platform to coordinate donations and volunteering.  There are 78 placement centres, accredited by the ministry of work and social protection.  Each day they are opening and accrediting new placement centres.  CCF HHC Moldova will support refugees arriving in these centres, through humanitarian help and child protection actions.  We are developing children’s safe spaces in those centres, equipped with toys, books, teaching and sports equipment, board games etc., to help children to play, to enable them to do something normal while they process their trauma, and occupy them and provide some respite for exhausted parents.

We are also supporting the Ministry of Social Protection to equip and staff a centre for 150 unaccompanied refugee children. We will supplement the basic state provisions with psychological counselling, clothing and other essentials such as hygiene supplies.

In Romania we’re working with partners to support the emergency relief effort, as mothers, children, young people and the elderly cross the border through Sighetu Marmatiei. Alongside the provision of vitally needed essentials including sleeping bags, blankets, food and medicines we’re focusing on identifying and supporting unaccompanied children who have suffered long term institutionalisation and who are at greatest risk of exploitation and abuse.

Our Romanian colleagues anticipate an increase in traffic at secondary (i.e. Moldovan-Romanian) border points, e.g. Iași, as more people arrive from Ukraine via Moldova.  As witnessed at the customs in Sighetu, more refugees now arriving are coming on foot, with plastic bags. Colleagues in both Romania and Moldova anticipate a second wave of arrivals who will need a lot more humanitarian assistance.

This means we’re urgently re-organising our limited resources to dedicate our trained teams of child protection professionals to meeting the most immediate needs of the refugee crisis whilst finding innovative solutions to maintain support for the children and families already in our programme. In some cases our teams of social workers and child psychologists are leaving their own children and families to travel hundreds of kilometres from their homes to set up close to the border to provide desperately needed physical, emotional and psycho-social support.

We’re using our expertise to make sure border crossings are as safe as they can be for vulnerable children and young people and to advocate for the safe reunification of families as soon as possible and where this is not possible, for emergency foster and family type care for children.

Globally

This is a crisis in Ukraine and it is a crisis that will have lasting repercussions for children and families across Eastern Europe.

We stand for the children and families in crisis now, and all those who will feel the impact of this war for years to come.  Our communications and advocacy work is seeking to raise the profile of children and families so that they are placed at the centre of the humanitarian response, including with the EU’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and G7 countries (especially the UK Government).

– We’re urgently calling on all actors in this conflict to keep orphanages out of the firing line and to keep them fully staffed and supplied with adequate provisions.  Funding and humanitarian assistance will be needed at significant scale to support the monitoring of the situation of children across the 700 institutions, as well as preparedness and response measures including (where safe/appropriate) their evacuation out of conflict zones.

In support of this we have:
– written to UN OCHA to ask for their help to ensure orphanages and other residential care facilities hosting children and families are recognised and signaled as protected humanitarian spaces in the course of the conflict.
– We’re also calling on governments in neighbouring countries to support refugees fleeing over the border. Families must be kept together at all costs. We must keep displaced children traveling alone out of orphanages – instead prioritising emergency foster care and family reunification. We are putting together a set of advocacy messages on the reception and protection of refugee, unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine coming into neighbour countries. These messages will be used by our teams in Romania and Moldova as well as at EU level to advocate for children to be reunited with families or supported through temporary foster and family like care.
– Finally, we are coordinating with other global agencies that have a presence in Ukraine to share updates on the situation on the ground, connect our Ukraine colleagues, and assess possible joint advocacy actions on children in institutions.

Please note the latest Joint statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi that reflects our advocacy ask about not separating children:

“Nearly 100,000 children, half of them with disabilities, live in institutional care and boarding schools in Ukraine. Many of these children have living relatives or legal guardians. We have received reports of institutions seeking to move children to safety in neighbouring countries or beyond. While recognizing that, under specific circumstances, humanitarian evacuations can be lifesaving and welcoming efforts to bring children to safety, it is critical that special measures be taken in the best interest of the children, and that the consent of their parents or persons responsible for their care be granted. Under no circumstances should families be separated as a result of relocation or evacuation movements.”

What you can do:
This is a fast-developing multi-country crisis.  The impacts of which will be long-term. By supporting our work across Ukraine, Moldova and Romania you can help protect children and families right now and in the aftermath of this war.