Ukrainian nonprofits support children orphaned by war

The non-profit organization Gen.Ukrainian provides psychological support to children affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Oksana Lebedieva founded the group in 2022 to help children process trauma. The organization operates about ten different programs and has reached nearly 50,000 young people. One recipient, a girl named Margo, participated in a therapeutic camp in Spain to address the trauma of losing her father and brother in a 2022 bombardment in Mariupol.

While the Ukrainian government continues to use state-run orphanages, private initiatives are filling gaps in care. Myroslava Kharshenko of the Save Ukraine association reports that the country had 10,000 orphans before the war began in February 2022. The conflict has created nearly 3,000 new orphans, and between 3,000 and 4,000 children have been abducted by Russian forces. Kharshenko notes that these figures likely underestimate the total number of affected children because data is unavailable from territories controlled by Moscow.