Liubotyn is a small town in the Kharkiv region. Before the war, the “Mother and Child Center” was established here. The local team provided shelter and assistance to women in labor who found themselves in a difficult situation. During the full-scale Russian invasion, they had to retrain. Single mothers with children who escaped the occupation literally barefoot were able to settle here.
In the spring, Russian artillery was reaching the city, there were several significant shelling incidents, and shells fell near the Center. The children were falling ill, as the mothers had to go down to the bomb shelter in the basement with the babies at night, and they had to be dressed accordingly, and this was taking place at night, under fire.
Most of the women in labor did not want to leave. All employees stayed put, although they could have moved with their families to safer places. They were on duty at the facility 24 hours a day, not knowing whether they would return home. In the early days, when there was a shortage of food, we stood in queues at the pharmacy and in stores to supply the Center.
Since May, when the threat of constant shelling had passed, the Center began accepting new mothers, and in June, women with older children had nowhere else to go.
Now, due to the frequent absence of electricity, the Center is kept warm with the help of generators. Volunteers got a tourist stove so mothers could heat milk and food for their children. Charitable organizations also bring clothes, food, diapers, and baby formula to the Center.
The Global 2000 for Children of Ukraine Foundation provided the Mother and Child Center with strollers, a refrigerator, heaters, thermoses, flashlights, gas burners, and chargers – everything needed for an autonomous winter.
New residents need warm winter clothes and small chests of drawers or wardrobes for their rooms. The Center also needs a washing machine and a microwave. Many of the residents had all of this at home, but their homes were on the other side of the war. And there is no way to return.
Therefore, if you are able to help the children and their mothers, please get in touch with our partners, the Charitable Foundation “Volunteers: Adults to Children”. They will organize the transfer of things and reporting.
Photo: Stanislav Ostrous for the Global 2000 for Children of Ukraine