The World Orphan Fund allocates $50,000 to the psychological assistance program

President of The World Orphan Fund, R. J. Johnson, and volunteer Bridget Hagerty visited Kyiv on January 4, 2024. They met with the leadership of the Children of Heroes Charity Fund to share best practices in mental health recovery and discuss opportunities to help children who lost their parents during the war.

Supporting and restoring mental health is one of the Foundation’s top priorities during the war. According to a survey conducted by Gradus Research, 75% of Ukrainian children have symptoms of mental trauma. The most common among them are “emotional swings.” Additionally, one in five children has a sleep disorder, and one in ten children has a decreased desire to communicate nightmares and memory impairment.

Children who have lost one or both parents during the war are in particular need of psychological assistance and rehabilitation because, in addition to the problems that every child in Ukraine has, they are experiencing the loss of their parents. The Children of Heroes CF spends 12% of all funds raised on emergency psychological assistance and rehabilitation.

During their visit on January 4, R.J. Johnson and Bridget Hagerty shared their best practices and experience in supporting bereaved children and learned from the experience of the foundation’s experts. Given the significant need for psychological support for children and families, The World Orphan Fund made a $25,000 contribution to sustain this program and discussed other opportunities to provide humanitarian assistance and support for family helpers.

“This year, we have put much effort into developing a psychological assistance program for the children under our care. Unfortunately, the number of children who lost their parents is constantly growing. Thus, about 80 children join the Foundation every week, and as long as the war continues, this trend will remain. Over the past year and a half, our team of 23 psychologists has provided over 10 thousand hours of individual and art therapy. And thanks to the contribution of our partner, The World Orphan Fund, we will be able to organize individual and group online counseling,” said Anna Khomenko, co-founder and director of the Children of Heroes in Ukraine.

As part of the visit, The World Orphan Fund representatives talked to family assistants and families of the Children of Heroes Charitable Foundation. They held an art therapy session for them. 

The World Orphan Fund is an international volunteer organization that helps children who have lost their parents. The visit of their representatives is part of a partnership with the Children of Heroes CF that began in December 2023. At that time, The World Orphan Fund supported the Crisis Psychological Assistance program with a contribution of $25,000.

In addition to psychological rehabilitation for its beneficiaries, Children of Heroes CF also organizes psychological camps for children, one of which was attended by journalists from The New York Times.