From combating orphanhood to rehabilitating the wounded: more than 5 million children received help from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation
Ukrainian children need comprehensive and systematic support, especially boys and girls from vulnerable groups. This is especially important in times of war. For almost 19 years, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has been taking care of children and teenagers who are in the greatest need of help. And since the first days of the russian aggression in 2014, the Foundation has been paying special attention to children, striving to ensure that their childhood is healthy and happy under any circumstances.
Rinat Akhmetov to Children!
The Rinat Akhmetov to Children! charity initiative is a programme that provides comprehensive assistance to children. The Foundation implements educational, health, rehabilitation, psychological and motivational projects for children all year round; holds all-Ukrainian festive events; and helps children left without parental care find new families. The Foundation's assistance has already reached more than 5 million children. A number of specialised projects are being implemented under this initiative, as described below.
No to Orphanhood!
Since 2007, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has been working to prevent orphanhood, making a significant contribution to promoting family-based care for orphans and children left without parental care and becoming a leader in national adoption. Thanks to the Rinat Akhmetov to Children. No to Orphanhood! programme and the portal of the same name, more than 10,000 children from orphanages have found new families.
The Foundation also provides support to foster families and family-type orphanages, conducts webinars, trainings, online consultations, and invites leading experts to answer pressing questions from parents, candidates for adoption, and colleagues. A practical guide, "Steps to a Child", has been created, as well as a video guide that helps prospective adoptive parents go all the way to adopting a child into a family.
Rehabilitation of Injured Children
The Foundation is the only one in Ukraine that systematically and on a large scale helps children who have been injured as a result of the war. Understanding that this problem requires a special approach, in March 2016, the Foundation launched the Rehabilitation of Injured Children project, which allows children to undergo rehabilitation in the best health resorts in Ukraine, relax and recover physically and psychologically using individually selected methods.
The Foundation invites children under the age of 18 who have been physically injured or wounded in Ukraine since the start of russia's full-scale invasion to participate in physical and psychological rehabilitation. The rehabilitation takes place in a health resort in Zakarpattia. We have already completed 149 successful rehabilitation courses.
I Can Hear Now
Children who are hard of hearing from birth or at a young age lose the opportunity to fully develop their speech, comprehensively perceive information, and develop and learn on a par with their peers. Boys and girls from vulnerable groups have the most difficulty overcoming this barrier, as high-quality hearing aids are expensive.
The Rinat Akhmetov for Children. I Can Hear Now project has been helping children under 7 years old with hearing impairments who live or have lived in territorial communities in areas of hostilities, occupation, or encirclement to hear the world since 2018. Already, 240 little Ukrainians have received state-of-the-art, highly sensitive hearing aids from the Foundation, which are adjusted to each child's individual characteristics and needs.
Peaceful Recreation for Children of Ukraine
Almost 4.9 thousand children affected by the war have received recreation, rehabilitation and psychological assistance as part of the project, which takes place in a children's camp in Zakarpattia in the format of Blogger Camp sessions. During each session, participants acquire new knowledge and skills, engage in creative activities, and participate in masterclasses from professionals.
The project involves:
children who were returned to Ukraine after being illegally taken to russia;
children who lost their parents during the war;
children from foster families and family-type children's homes;
children of foster carers and adoptive parents;
children living in the territory where active hostilities are taking place;
children from the de-occupied territories;
children affected by hostilities.
The Foundation, in cooperation with the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, was the first to provide comprehensive assistance to children who returned to their homeland after being illegally taken to russia. The trauma experienced by these children requires special assistance. All participants of the Blogger Camp work with qualified psychologists who have been trained under the War Trauma programme developed by the Foundation.
The children gain useful, practical knowledge during each session. For example, during this year's winter Blogger Camp, the children participated in mine risk sessions with the Danish Refugee Council.
Famous Ukrainians are also joining the changes, holding meetings with children in the format of masterclasses. The Blogger Camp has already been visited by actor and presenter Oleksiy Sukhanov, People's Artist of Ukraine, singer Nataliia Mogilevska, actress and presenter Dasha Tregubova, and the team of the globally successful animated film Mavka.
Your Superpower
The Foundation's projects for children and teenagers provide useful knowledge and advice on finding motivation for self-development, helping them find their dream profession, and developing self-confidence. For this purpose, within the framework of the Rinat Akhmetov to Children. Your Superpower project, an educational and entertaining Telegram channel, Your Superpower, is running.
The @itsyoursuperpower channel was created to support teenagers who, despite the war and other life obstacles, find opportunities for learning and self-development for the sake of their future and the future of Ukraine. As part of the project, the educational series Your Super Profession was launched, a seven-episode series about modern professions that allows teenagers to try on different professions.
All-Ukrainian essay competition
Last year, almost four thousand creative works were sent to The Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation by the participants of the All-Ukrainian essay contest "My Ukraine": high school students and teachers. Each essay was carefully read by the Foundation's team and a representative of the State Scientific Institution "Institute of Education Content Modernisation", which has been involved in the competition for three years in a row.
A large number of essays received as part of the competition have become part of The Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, the world's largest archive of stories from Ukrainian civilians about life during the war, which contains more than 100,000 stories. These and other stories can be found at https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
New Year's Campaign
The Rinat Akhmetov to Children! All-Ukrainian New Year's Eve Charity Campaign is a tradition of kindness, help and personal involvement that has been going on for more than two decades. Over this time, more than 1.2 million children have received New Year and Christmas greetings and gifts.
The campaign includes the Call to St Nicholas and Letter to St Nicholas contests: children from all over Ukraine have the opportunity to call the fairy-tale wizard, share their stories or tell about their dreams, and win exciting gifts. More than 9.5 thousand letters and almost 2 thousand calls were received during the last winter competitions.
The Foundation wishes happy winter holidays to children in boarding schools evacuated from the Donetsk region; family-type orphanages; all YaMariupol IDP support centres in Ukraine; the Metinvest Zaporizhzhia Green Centre; children under the care of the Donetsk Regional State Administration; and participants in other Foundation projects and competitions.
Other Projects
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation supports young internally displaced people from Mariupol by sending them holiday greetings, providing them with reflective bracelets to ensure their safety on the road, and actively participating in the YaMariupolHousing project, which provides temporary housing for IDPs from Mariupol in other cities of Ukraine.
Since 2014, The Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has been collecting stories of Ukrainians about their experiences during the war. Its archive contains many children's stories told firsthand, as well as collections of such stories, including those about children whose rights were violated by russia and about illegally taken Ukrainian children who were returned home.
The Foundation also initiates and carries out other activities both before the holidays and throughout the year. Follow the updates of the Rinat Akhmetov to Children programme at:
https://akhmetovfoundation.org/rinat-ahmetov-dityam.
