The war in Ukraine has caused suffering to so many children, but even before it began families and children were facing incredibly difficult situations. Mykola and Zakhar are brothers who faced severe challenges from a very young age.
Before the war in Ukraine broke out, Mykola and Zakhar were sent to live in boarding school because their mother wasn’t able to take care of them. The boys hated it there.
When the end of term came, the boys waited excitedly for their mum to come and take them home. They looked on patiently as the other children’s parents came and collected them. But their mum never came.
Eventually the school were able to get in contact with the boys’ grandmother Daryna*, who came and picked them up. But Daryna only knew the boys from the short time that she’d spent with them on the occasional holidays they’d been on together. She was scared. She didn’t know what she should do, or how to support the boys herself.
Providing support
A local children’s service got in touch with our team and we met with Daryna, Mykola and Zakhar to see how we could help them.
We contacted the police to see if they could track down the boys’ mother. Although ultimately the police couldn’t find her, we knew that taking this action would be important when it came to granting Mykola and Zakhar the status of children deprived of parental care.
Our team worked to help Daryna so that she had the skills and support she needed to raise the boys, and we helped her to understand exactly what life had been like for them and how this had affected their behaviour.
Our psychologist also began to work with the children. As part of the sessions, we helped Daryna to talk with Mykola and Zakhar about what had happened, why it wasn’t their fault, and how they could rebuild their lives.
A turning point
In one of these conversations , the children asked a key question they wanted an answer to: “will we return to the boarding school”? And when the grandmother promised that she would never send them to a boarding school again, it was a real turning point – they seemed to change immediately now that they didn’t have to worry about returning to a place they had so hated.
As the boys prepared to transfer to a local school, we helped to collect all their old documents from the boarding school, bought them new books and prepared a room for them at their grandmothers. We also gave the family financial assistance, so the Daryna was able to buy the boys the stationery they needed and computer tablets to study on.
A happy outcome
Gradually, the children got used to their new life, overcame their fears, and started studying at the local school. Daryna was happier than anyone, as she hadn’t thought that Mykola and Zakhar would be able to adapt to learning so easily after what they’d been through.
Working together with the boys’ grandmother, our team was eventually able to gather the documents the family needed to establish the childrens’ legal status in the courts.
And finally, after almost a year of work the courts made a decision: Daryna is now officially Mykola and Zukhar’s guardian – an outcome all three of them couldn’t be happier about! Thanks to the determination and resilience of Darnya and our team, Mykola and Zukhar are finally where they belong: Back to Family.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
