By Kelsi Young | Development Associate
During the reporting period, our primary focus has been on expanding the support for our grantee partners, and facilitating virtual and in-person events that support the weaving of networks and establishment of partnerships amongst the overall cohort. GFC staff have continued to engage regularly with our local partners, exploring opportunities to connect to other funders, advocate for more grassroots funding in Ukraine and surrounding areas, while providing technical support when our partners request it. We recognize the need for our partners to adapt psychologically and emotionally to the extremely challenging context in which they continue to operate. All of our partners are prioritizing the safety and security of the communities they are serving. Regardless of their specific area of focus, their first priority is ensuring they deliver their services and activities in a safe and secure manner. With that aim in mind, we also maintain a core focus on tailored support for our partners around their safeguarding policy and practice.
Based on extensive updates and regular check-ins with our partners, please see below a summary of the wide range of community-level impact that the Supporting Ukraine's Children and Families project has enabled. This information is presented by focus area:
1. Educational services
Our grantee partners are using their grant support from GFC to strengthen and expand access to education for Ukrainian children, both those internally displaced and those who are currently residing in neighboring countries. Our partners are maintaining safe and secure educational spaces, which includes renovating and re-purposing existing spaces to serve as temporary or long-term classrooms. Partners are also using their grant funding to pay for a wide range of staff roles including formal educators, tutors and counseling support, and after-school coordinators.
In addition, partners are using a portion of their grants to provide remote learning devices (including tablets and laptops) to children and families, while developing curriculum for both Online and in-person lessons that are adaptable for fast-moving crisis settings. In conversations with partner staff in recent months they have reported that this approach has helped to reduce disruption to education and provided safe spaces where children can receive both formal education and informal learning opportunities. These new spaces have also helped Ukrainian refugee children living outside of Ukraine by providing education in both Ukrainian language and the host country’s language. Many of our partners are also providing professional development and job training skills sessions and courses to parents and carers whilst expanding access to education for school-aged Roma children in both formal and informal settings.
2. Psychosocial Support and peer network wellbeing work
Partners have been using their grant award to provide consultations and sessions with psychologists, therapists, and peer mentors. Partners also report using grant support to conduct creative arts and sports activities, form parent support groups, develop trauma-informed curriculum, and create a cohort of LGBTQ+ youth appropriate mental health specialists. Partners working with children and young people living with disabilities have focused on developing support groups and designing leadership and training program that are adapted to their unique needs and circumstances.
Staff from our partner organizations have organized peer groups for women - intentionally creating and resourcing safe spaces that help them to integrate in new communities and overcome the trauma from over two years of war and conflict in Ukraine. Partners are also starting to use the GFC grants to focus more on the psychosocial support they can offer to the staff of their organizations, as many of them continue to experience both compassion fatigue and professional burnout.
3. Humanitarian and Emergency Support
Partners continue to purchase food, medicine, hygienic supplies, and are facilitating both temporary and permanent housing as and when required. They hope to return to a focus on the more long-term needs of children and families but are determined to remain flexible and adaptive as the war continues to rage in many of the most heavily impacted regions of Ukraine.
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