Help disabled Ukrainian children in desperate need

As the mother of a disabled son in the UK, my heart is breaking for the children and families like us caught in the hell of the Russian attacks on Ukraine.

 

They can’t leave because of their disabilities. They desperately need supplies of medicine, specialist nutrition, nappies and, now, in the last week in many cases just simply food.

 

“Who, if not us? Help Ukrainian children with disabilities” (Кто, если не мы? Помощь детям Украины с инвалидностью) is a Ukrainian parent-support group who are locating, buying and getting these supplies to families, wherever they are sheltering in the country. They rely entirely on money transfers from outside Ukraine to buy the supplies in the few remaining shops and chemists in Ukraine or them ordering from Poland and carefully getting them brought into Ukraine.

 

These include cystic fibrosis and epilepsy drugs, nutritional milks and foods for children who are tube fed, incontinence products.

 

This tiny organisation, led on the ground by Yana Dubranova, amazing aunt of a child with autism, with support from Katya Severts in the UK and a few other special needs parents, is an absolute lifeline to hundreds and hundreds of families in Ukraine right now.

 

Please look at their Facebook and Instagram pages to see how they work, to see the heart-rending messages from the families who are sleeping and just trying to stay alive their disabled children in basements and corridors in towns across the Ukraine https://www.facebook.com/groups/1498152203827657/ and https://instagram.com/detkidcp

 

Please help keep disabled Ukrainian children alive by donating to this, however little or much you can manage.

 

Your donation will literally help to save the life and feed a disabled child. Whatever we can raise will go straight to the account of “Who, if not us” to buy more products.

 

There are many well-known charities working in Ukraine and I would normally think that supporting established registered charities is best but I see “Who, if not us?” reaching and helping individual families like us in the most immediate, direct and practical way in these unimaginable circumstance.

 

If you feel the same, whether as parents or relatives or friends of children and adults with special needs, or just as kind people, please help!

 

Let me know if you would like information on how they are working or to contact them.

 

Thank you for reading this and thank you for any support you can give.  

Thanks to generous donations so far, I’ve upped the target to £4,000.  The more we can help the better. 

Thank you for supporting this. 

 

Sophie

 

About Sophie: My son Max is 20 years old and has severe learning difficulties due to a rare chromosome disorder. I’m a trustee of Unique, the rare chromosome disorder charity. I also run SEN London Parents, a network of parents and carers of children and adults with autism, learning difficulties and lots of other diagnoses.

My normal life is juggling Max’s medical appointments, special-needs college, keeping him happy and engaged, and helping other families in the same shoes to get the help they need here in the UK. This is why the situation in Ukraine is so heartbreaking.

It’s enough of a battle to secure the right medical treatment, education and life chances for our children and adults with special needs here. It is beyond contemplation to think of families just like us, but whose daily concern is now simply: can they stay alive, can they get their children the medicine they need, can they survive this with any dignity, will their children survive this at all?

About Katya: Katya Severts is an educator, writer and special needs mum in the UK.  She is helping get supplies to children with speial needs in the Ukraine and refugee families who have manage to leave but who also need help.  Katya is also helping families with disabilities who want to leave find transport and hosts.  Let me know if you would be willing to host.

About Yana: Until a month ago Yana Dubrovna was working as a teacher, bringing up her son with autism and running a disability support group.  Now she spends every hour of her days finding urgent supplies for desperate parents and sending them to towns and villages from Lviv to Xharkyiv.  Yana relies on donations from abroad and every night when she has bought what she can, she has to appeal for more donation through Facebook.  She is doing an amazing job in terrifying circumstances both with providing her families with practical help, food and medicine but and moral support.  Through all our donations, you and  I can provide her with the means to continue to help her to help her special needs and disabled families for as long as this war continues.  Thank you

 

Below just a few pictures of some of children beign helped "Who if not us?"