Equilibrium Rehabilitation and Recovery Programme in western Ukraine.
For many of Ukraine’s children, playtime has ended. Air raid sirens can last for hours. Missiles are flying, bombs are falling, and drones are everywhere. Often friends have left for far-away countries. Fathers are fighting on the frontlines. Worst of all, friends and family members have been killed and injured. In a recent UN press release: …222 children were killed or injured between 1 March and 31 May 2025, compared to 73 between 1 December 2024 and 28 February 2025. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/threefold-increase-number-children-killed-or-injured-ukraine-over-past-three-months
The summer of 2025 is likely to be the worse so far. Russia is attacking Ukraine with record numbers of drones and missiles (overnight on July 8th, Ukraine was hit by the biggest ever aerial attack from Russia – 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles hit cities around the country in multiple waves.) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k19q4j07zo.
The ongoing use of explosive weapons in populated areas has been particularly deadly and destructive. Ukrainians have seen unimaginable horror since the war began – from Russian war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere to the wounded in military and state hospitals to the huge graveyards for fallen soldiers and devastating levels of destruction everywhere.
Dnipro Central Baptist Church where ‘explosions were heard but, thank God, they did not interfere with the children’s camp’.
Against this background, our partners are busy giving hundreds of children the opportunity to experience ‘normalcy’ by running a variety of summer camps. Here children and young people find healing in play, sport, or nature; they form new friendships, and strengthen existing ones; as well as having fun they can begin to process their traumatic experiences, talking as much or as little as they are comfortable with.
The camps vary – day camps and sports camps; camps with therapy such as Equilibrium; camps in the Carpathian Mountains and activities such as trampolining, swimming, hiking, picnics and barbecues, art and craft activities … all good, healthy and healing pleasures! Some children will learn about faith for the first time, others will deepen their faith. Lots of studies have shown that faith can provide a sense of hope, purpose, and belonging, all of which help to build resilience. We pray for open hearts and that lives are enriched.
At Dnipro Hope Mission, we have experienced these camps first hand and know they have a wonderful impact on the lives of children who have the opportunity to attend. They will be able to experience joy, security and God’s love despite the war. One camp costs approximately £500 to run. The more donations we receive, the more camps we can run and more children of war will be blessed! Please help if you can. www.dniprohopemission.org.uk/donate ref: Summer Camps
‘Thank you’ from our friends in Tsarichanka and ‘Thank you’ from Oleksii and the children in Vinnytsia.
We ask for your prayers for:
- Children who are travelling away from the war zone to camps in the safer countryside – they will be worried about the family they have left behind.
- Ukraine’s defenders who are fighting for this – that Ukraine’s children can enjoy their lives, have many happy moments, and live freely in a peaceful, independent and democratic county.
- The camp leaders – it is an awesome responsibility to take children away from their homes in a time of war – what would happen if the Russians advanced and took their hometowns while they are away?
- The safety and protection of camps near the front lines (such as Oleksii in the villages around Kherson).
- That all the children experiencing the camps make memories that will be with them all their lives and that these memories will help them feel happier when they are sad or scared.
- That all these children remain alive and that the war would end soon with a just and lasting peace.
We cannot help but think of those children in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine unable to attend camps but spending the summer in bomb shelters. Heartbreaking too, to know that there are thousands of children who have been abducted by Russia and who will be spending this summer being ‘re-educated’ and experiencing the ‘culture and the way of life of our Motherland’ ref: ‘Russia continues preparations to deport tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to summer camps across occupied Ukraine and Russia, including to areas of Crimea that are unsafe.’ https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-update-may-1-2025
Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for standing with Ukraine.
References/Further reading:
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-2000-children-killed-or-injured-escalation-war-ukraine May 13th, 2024
