Fact file

Supported since 1990
Country Ukraine
Type of Support Provide Aid

Our ongoing work in Ukraine

700,000 refugees from the east of Ukraine are currently residing in Kyiv, the capital city. Families in Kyiv with children with additional needs are marginalised from society. Single parents struggle to stay afloat financially. Due to these circumstances, many children are not getting an education. CRY has been supporting 20 children in these situations since 2020 to have access to schooling. This projects provides high-quality learning with Christian principles and will be vital for these children to have an opportunity for a better future. We are passionate in ensuring children can succeed no matter what their situation.

Our response to the war

Group of children jumping

Our response in numbers

Click below to see a summary of our work in the last 365 days: https://youtu.be/hp617afK3Ks

CRY have been supporting projects serving marginalised children and families across Ukraine for the last 25 years. This has involved supporting fostering programmes for displaced children and provision of education and nutrition for vulnerable children. CRY have also supported Ukrainian families displaced due to conflict.

Russia launched full-scale invasion on Ukraine on 24th February with a series of missile attacks across the country. In under 24 hours from the start of the attacks, 137 deaths and 317 injuries had already been reported. (source)

Tens of thousands of civilians have already been forced to flee and leave everything they know out of fear for their lives. (source)

In the current devastating conflict, the lives of our project partners and the families they support are in danger. CRY is raising funds to aid in the provision of essential supplies and transport to safety.

To donate, please click (here)

Please see below for regular updates of how we are using your donations to help support those affected by the war:

Group of children jumping

Update #4 - 13/04/2022

We continue to fund our phase 2 response - We are now using your donations to provide more medium-term support to 7 different nations connected to the conflict: Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Moldova, Bulgaria, Israel and Romania. Across all these initiatives we are meeting the following needs:

  • Food supplies

  • Essential supplies and medications

  • Prevention work around the risks of human trafficking

  • Beds and a safe place to stay

  • Ongoing education opportunities despite the war

For live updates - please visit our social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Update #3 - 11/03/2022

Phase 2 - Medium-term response

Thanks to your donations we have been able to give initial and immediate support to those who remain in Ukraine and also to those that are fleeing the conflict.

We continue to fund our phase 1 response however we are now using your donations to provide more medium-term support to all affected by the crisis. Our medium-term support involves:

  • 1) School in Ukraine: we are continuing to support our project partners in Ukraine to deliver lessons to the students who have been displaced from their homes due to the war but remain in Ukraine. Thanks to your donations we are able to ensure these children continue to have access to education and stability in such uncertain times.

  • 2) Displacement camps in Ukraine - your donations have enabled us to partner with a Church in Ukraine to deliver essential supplies to displacement camps. Your donations have been used to enable them to transport supplies and food to those most in need across different camps in Western Ukraine.

  • 3) Accommodation for refugees in Krakow, Poland - your donations have been used to help the work of a church in providing suitable accommodation for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. Your donations will also be used by our partners in Krakow to send 5 trucks loaded with essential supplies to Ukraine to go to those most in need.

  • 4) Human trafficking prevention - We continue to support the association FREE in Romania in their mission to prevent human trafficking of those fleeing the war. Those fleeing are mainly women and children who have left everything they know and are unfortunately very vulnerable to exploitation. We are using your donations to enable FREE, in partnership with Bucharest social services, to have a stand with staff members at Gara de Nord, the main train station in the capital where many refugees will be arriving. The staff will be raising awareness regarding the risks of human trafficking and will be giving away printed resources and wristbands with details of emergency numbers to contact if in trouble.

  • 5) Evacuating children to safety - We are supporting a Ukrainian children’s charity who successfully evacuated 147 children from a war zone in Ukraine and transported them to a safe place in Germany. We will share further updates regarding this initiative in the coming days.

  • 6) Refugee accommodation in Braşov, Romania - your donations are enabling our project partners in Brasov, Romania to host refugee families who have fled the conflict. They continue to transform their current building to produce more living space for more families. Our partners are about to receive a whole under-18 Ukrainian hockey team and their mothers on 19th March. Furthermore, our partners have secured Brasov's ice-ring facility which will enable the children to keep training and deal with their trauma. We will continue to provide regular updates about this on our social media platforms and website.

  • 7) Refugee accommodation in Lovech, Bulgaria - your donations are enabling our project partners in Bulgaria to host refugee families who have fled the conflict. They continue to transform their current building to produce more living space for more families. Furthermore, your donations will also be used to purchase food and essential items for refugees in Lovech, Vratsa, Sliven and Zwishtov.

Update #2 - 09/03/2022

It is heart-breaking to see hundreds of thousands of people having to leave everything they know because of war. We continue to pray for peace.

Thanks to your donations, our project partners, in partnership with a local Church were at the Ukrainian/Romanian border greeting those fleeing the war with food, hot drinks, and essential toiletries.

Unfortunately, those crossing the borders are vulnerable to exploitation from traffickers. For this reason, our partners have also been distributing flyers at the border to raise awareness regarding the risk of human trafficking when crossing the border.

Update #1 - 04/03/2022

Phase one of the CRY response to the Ukrainian crisis

CRY would like to say a big thank you for all of your donations and responses so far. Because of the money that has already been donated CRY have been able to work with local agencies in Romania and Ukraine to develop both short-term and long-term humanitarian strategies which will involve 3 major phases.

Phase one is our immediate response to the crisis:

  • 1) CRY partner with a local School in Ukraine and provide funding for provision of free education for disadvantaged children but their city is now a war zone. They have been weaving camouflage nets and have been trying to evacuate as many students and their families from the war zone as possible. Many of them have travelled to another part of Ukraine but are in need of funds to continue to deliver free education lessons to the children. We are sending donations we have already received to them now and will continue to raise money to support them in the coming weeks and months

  • 2) We have also sent money to a local NGO at the border of Romania/Ukraine to allow them to support 49 refugees currently hosted in a children’s home at the border of Ukraine and Romania. Your donations will cover the costs for beds and essential supplies for these individuals.

  • 3) We are partnering with a local Romanian NGO (FREE) to provide support to those fleeing the war and crossing the Romanian border by providing hot drinks, nutritious food and essential supplies for babies/young children - this was done in partnership with a local Romanian Church. This help is aimed at all civilians fleeing the crisis including those from ethnic minorities who have faced discrimination when trying to cross the border. Your donations will also be used to pay for the costs of hosting 2 North African women who have fled Ukraine.This team will also be doing prevention training at the border to raise awareness regarding human trafficking. This war is an opportunity for traffickers to take advantage of the most vulnerable and do further harm to those crossing into Romania. Some extremely worrying situations have already been flagged and raised by local authorities there in relation to this matter. Using your donations we have helped association FREE to gather the resources needed to effectively deliver these prevention work at the border.

  • 4) Some of your donations will also be used by our long-term Romanian partner charity to help them transform their current Church building into temporary accommodation for refugee families coming into the Brasov area.

Our partners in Ukraine and Romania anticipate there will be a second wave of Ukrainian civilians seeking refuge from lower-income families and therefore will be more vulnerable and in need. We will be using your donations to ensure many of these vulnerable families are supported and have access to essential supplies.

We will send further updates regarding phases two & three of our response to the crisis. Needs are continuing to increase; to donate please click on the "give today" button.

Every penny raised will go directly towards meeting the needs of those affected by the conflict. Meanwhile, we continue to pray for peace.

Our work in Ukraine before the war

700,000 refugees from the east of Ukraine are currently residing in Kyiv, the capital city. Families in Kyiv with children with additional needs are marginalised from society. Single parents struggle to stay afloat financially. Due to these circumstances, many children are not getting an education. CRY has been supporting 20 children in these situations since 2020 to have access to schooling. This projects provides high-quality learning with Christian principles and will be vital for these children to have an opportunity for a better future. We are passionate in ensuring children can succeed no matter what their situation.

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