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This is a preliminary calculation, done by manager of the “No to Orphanhood” program Daria Kasianova. The data are only projections so far, because direct registration of children is now impossible. Search for orphans is now being conducted by volunteers who appeal to social services which are still working on the terrorist-controlled territories and ask neighbors to report orphaned children.

“One thousand children is a projection. We have calculated it based on how many civilians have been killed. It is about 4,000 people by now. Assuming that everyone had a family and children, these children are likely left without parents. We know cases where parents disappear without a trace or die. It sometimes happens that the mother is treated for her injuries in hospital, while children have no father present, so they too find themselves without a caregiver,” Kasianova told us. “The government must lend a hand here and design a simplified scheme or mechanism allowing the child to promptly receive orphan status, if its parents died, but there is no official record of their death. Nobody can get the orphan status without such document now. Orphans shall be guaranteed social benefits and privileges. The Ministry of Social Affairs has to take up the case. At least in the liberated territories, social services should be empowered to work with children, including issuing of the necessary documents. The procedure is now delayed, and the children stay in a limbo.”

Volunteers of the “No to Orphanhood” program have already managed to find 20 children and get work started with them. Due to the lack of necessary documents, it is impossible to give these children the orphan status and transfer them to orphanages. The initiative is looking for their grandparents and other relatives, attempting to provide housing and child care to them in this way.