The head of the Children's Service, Antonina Matveeva, spoke about work under martial law at a meeting of the head of ZODA, Oleksandr Starukh, with heads of structural units, heads of district military administrations and territorial communities.
Before the start of the war, 72 Children's Services operated on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, 5 of which were regional. Currently, only the services of the Zaporizhia and Vilnius City Councils, as well as the service of the Zaporizhia District State Administration, are working regularly. After the start of hostilities, the relevant administrations of the Orihiv and Gulyaipil communities were evacuated to the regional center and continue to work.
As of the beginning of January, the Service carried out work on the evacuation of 869 children who were in social protection institutions, boarding-type education system and specialized children's homes. Of these, 320 children were relocated within Ukraine, 549 are in European countries.
As for children - orphans, deprived of parental care and who are arranged for family forms of upbringing, it was possible to evacuate 455 children to other regions of the country, another 591 - abroad.
In particular, as Antonina Matveeva said, since the beginning of russia's aggression, 307 children separated from their families and who arrived at the regional center unaccompanied by adults have been identified. According to the orders of the territorial services for children, most of them were temporarily placed in the families of relatives and acquaintances, others in the center of social and psychological rehabilitation of children.
In addition, our children are actively supported by international organizations: the Union of Women of Ukraine and the "Mama+Ya" Charitable Fund, the BF "Jewish Community Center Mazal LLC" systematically provide humanitarian assistance to foster families, guardian families, and family-type orphanages. And thanks to the UNICEF project "Implementation of the needs and support of children in conditions of war", families with many children received the necessary household appliances: microwave ovens, slow cookers, refrigerators, washing machines, as well as laptops. With the assistance of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, 269 sets of warm clothes and shoes were purchased for IDP children from foster families and family-type orphanages.
Department of Culture and Information Policy
