It is with with great sadness that we inform our readers that yesterday, March 20th our recreation and education center in Mariupol was destroyed. The Center was jointly run by the Saint Nicholas’ Foundation and by the Maltese Aid Service of Ivano-frankivsk and overseen by a local coordinator in Mariupol – the much-esteemed Kateryna Sukhomlynova.
It is with with great sadness that we inform our readers that yesterday, March 20th our recreation and education center in Mariupol was destroyed. The Center was jointly run by the Saint Nicholas’ Foundation and by the Maltese Aid Service of Ivano-frankivsk and overseen by a local coordinator in Mariupol – the much-esteemed Kateryna Sukhomlynova.
Since 2019, the Center was a place where children from internally displaced families could find safety, participate in free educational and recreational activities, seek psychological support and receive many other forms of assistance. Until its last day, the Center served as assistance point for the civilian population affected by the Russian military activities. Our Foundation also provided the Center with a minivan equipped with a ramp which allowed for transportation of children with disabilities.
With the outbreak of the war in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, about 100 000 persons had been internally displaced, of whom 58 000 were children. The latter were severely affected by this experience - the loss of the feeling of safety, poverty, lack of access to education and the forced detachment from the environment they were accustomed to, for many caused significant traumas.
Thanks to the engagement of Kateryna Sukhomlynova and the local volunteers we were able to renovate the Center and give it a new life. It quickly became an important landmark in Mariupol: located on the left bank of the city, just next to the city’s biggest primary school and to the boarding facilities for children and teens. Its existence and activities attracted activists and volunteers and fostered a vibrant culture of volunteering engaging children and teenagers in activities aimed at helping others. It was in our Center that first aid packages, holiday gifts and school supply packages for children from two local orphanages were prepared.
With the COVID 19 outbreak, when the situation of the inhabitants of Mariupol worsened, our Center became the food distribution point for families with children most affected by the lockdown. In 2021, the activities by the Saint Nicholas Foundation in Mariupol were officially acknowledged by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs which provided our Foundation with a grant which allowed us to expand the Center’s activities to include specialised psychological support for the children. Thanks to a group of psychologists children could count on various forms of psychological support which included art-therapy, individual therapy and group therapy.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022 our Center yet again adapted its activities to the meet the most urgent needs of the inhabitants of Mariupol. During the war it served as a logistical center from which humanitarian aid was distributed in Mariupol and where much needed First Aid training sessions were also held.
Shooting and shelling nothwistanding, our local coordinator Kateryna decided to remain in Mariupol to continue her work at our Center. Thanks to her admirable determination and dedication, until the last day of its existence, the Center remained the place where families and children of Mariupol could seek help: get food, water or transportation to the local hospital using our minivan.
We are devastated that yesterday our Center and the minivan were burnt down and two soldiers who were defending it were killed. We will never forget the place which for the past three years became a home for so many children, offering them a feeling of warmth and normality which was taken away by this senseless war.
