Children

 

For us, it was a day about children, the innocent victims of any conflict. Although yesterday's aid deliveries involved more than just children, they were a central part.

We delivered valuable aid to a location in Mykolaiv, from where it will be taken to Kozats'ke, a village practically destroyed by Russian shelling.

We drove the remaining aid along the badly bombed and damaged highway to Kherson, to a community hub, where we found there was a huge, so far unmet, need for the basics of food and household products.

For us, though, the real pleasure came from handing out the trauma chicks and teddies, with their individual names, to the children in this district of Kherson. They brought such a smile to faces. And ours.

And if ever children have been, and continue to be, traumatised, it is in Kherson, occupied by the Russians from February to November last year, and continuing to experience daily shelling. We ourselves heard this shelling.

As we were giving out the aid we spoke to A, who has good English. She described the situation in her community:

In her immediate apartment block there are 20 children. We assume this is replicated in most of the apartment blocks we saw. Most children are not able to attend school because of the regular shelling, which must put additional pressure, both on their children and their families.

This is a further message we received from A:

"I am on unpaid leave. They explained that there were no places to return from maternity leave to work. All 5 years I have been raising my daughter alone.....we were all alone. scary every day. We are afraid to get hit again. We have come under fire more than once. thank God we survived. but it is even more frightening to die of hunger. and this fear makes us go out into the dangerous places in search of food and other necessaries. we were very glad to meet you. thank you very much for your help. it's really important for us."

There is very little work available and inflation is running at 26%, and so buying basic items is very difficult. We discovered that even dog food is twice the price that it is in Lviv, because many businesses have closed or moved to a less dangerous area. 

A says that parents need new shoes for their children when they grow out of them. There is no money for this 

And this is why people are so reliant on the scant humanitarian aid that is delivered to Kherson, perhaps because it is so risky, and also because not all aid is delivered equitably and some areas are overlooked.

Furthermore, many of the apartments, which were previously already neglected, now have windows blown out by shelling and, sometimes, no water supply.

This situation poses new questions and dilemmas for us. Where can our limited support make the most impact? There is, clearly, unmet need in a lot of southern and eastern Ukraine. However, having heard and seen the results of the constant shelling yesterday, which brings its own psychological terror, is this area where we need to concentrate our efforts? It's really difficult to decide.

Even the regional hospital in Kherson has been shelled regularly, with windows and parts of the hospital damaged. Many patients, including children, have been moved to hospitals in relatively safer areas, e.g. Mykolaiv.

Thanks to the leader of the community hub, who made the arrangements, we were able to visit the children's department of the hospital, where a small number remain. It was a very moving and emotional experience for us, and we felt privileged to have had this opportunity. We handed out the trauma teddies and colouring pens. We were generally unable to take photos because parents weren't available to give permission, but the mother of this little girl was happy to give permission.

The staff on the children's ward also took teddies to give to their children or grandchildren.

Just before entering Kherson, our friend, O, gave us two bulletproof vests, which he advised us to put on. Fiona's must have weighed half her body weight! As I started the van, the seatbelt warning sign came on, which seemed somewhat ironic, whilst wearing body armour!

But when we got to the hub and saw all the women and children in their ordinary clothes, it seemed very strange, as well as cumbersome, to be wearing this body armour. So we removed it and decided to take our chances, along with everyone else.

At the end of a very long day we took a spur of the moment decision, making the journey even longer! - to take the quieter coastal road back to Odesa. It was stunningly beautiful and stress relieving, after a nerve wracking and emotional day. However, it was tinged with sadness because so many holiday homes, hotels, etc, were boarded up. Just one more consequence of war...