Imagine being an orphaned child amidst a war.

The soldiers, the barricades, the guns…. it’s incredibly distressing. You’re already been separated from family, living in an institution… and now being told to flee for your life from bombs in the sky. The amount of trauma for orphaned and vulnerable children in Ukraine is unreal. It’s devastating!

New Horizons for Children is on the ground in Ukraine working with orphanages and boarding schools all across the country. Already we have helped support over 30 Safe Havens taking in over 5,000 children to have shelter, food, medical care, and other resources in Ukraine. This relocates everyone to a safe place, yet limits the trauma of moving children so quickly to a new country and system of care and keeps them with their known caregivers. Each facility is prepared with bedding, food, medical supplies, trauma-informed resources, and other needs.

NHFC has an agreement with the Lviv oblast to help care for all the orphaned children needing evacuation and ongoing care. The original Safe Haven Project has become much larger than what we originally thought. With this in mind, we have now established NHFC Ukraine which is focused solely on Ukraine. Through NHFC Ukraine, we are continuing to help evacuate and support orphaned children. 

We are also working to create the NHFC Hope House, which is a residential program for a Ukrainian family willing to take in up to 10 displaced orphaned children. We plan to purchase and furnish “family-style” homes in western Ukraine and train foster parents in trauma-informed parenting who will receive onoing emotional and behavioral support from NHFC Ukraine.  The first home will cost the most. We need to purchase the home, train the family, and provide a behavioral specialist to support them. We are hoping to raise $200,000 for the first NHFC Hope House! Maybe your church could be a partner in this first home?

In addition, we want to have a huge impact on all the vulnerable children in western Ukraine. We want to provide trauma-informed care training to any adult in western Ukraine willing to learn. We have current foster parents and over 22,000 teachers wanting to be trained as soon as possible. We plan to hire four more trainers to help us. Renting training locations, preparing meals, and providing materials costs about $50 per person for a complete day. The comprehensive training is 4 days long. We hope to raise $300,000 to support training all over the Lviv oblast.

Please encourage your church, your friends, and your neighbors to join in the efforts to help care for the children of Ukraine. Here are three ways to do this.