Spain has become a refuge for Ukrainian kids affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine, with several Spanish nongovernmental organizations pitching in to give children from the Donbas war zone, including orphans and the poor, a respite during summer.
“There are children who come from families that have fled from
Donetsk, Luhansk and the Crimean peninsula,” says Carmen González, member of Ven Con Nosotros, a Spanish NGO that has
brought 45 Ukrainian children to stay with families in Spain.
Daniel Ramírez, a member of Asociación
Asistencia a la Infancia, another Spanish nonprofit with a similar program,
also says some children taken to Spain have been directly affected by the
conflict in the east of Ukraine
“Three girls come from (liberated) Sloviansk, they recently escaped
from the war zone, and are going to spend the summer with Spanish families,”
Ramírez says. “There also are some kids whose parents are fighting at the
front.”
The children spend the summer living with Spanish families, who cover
all their living costs. During the months the children spend in Spain, they
also have health checks, are vaccinated, and have dental checkups. They follow
a better diet, and according to the nonprofits, the children usually return to
Ukraine having gained some weight.
The two groups, which are based in northern Spain and Madrid
respectively, send the children from Ukraine to families all around Spain. Such
programs actually have a long history – they first started after the Chornobyl
nuclear disaster with kids affected by the 1986 catastrophe.
Now, 29 years later, the children the programs help have been
affected by other problems – poverty, and the chaos created by Russia’s war
against Ukraine. The nonprofits say the conflict has made the task of securing
a summer in Spain for disadvantaged kids in Ukraine a lot harder.
“We were going to bring some children that had fled orphanages near
the front line, but they had to leave so quickly that they couldn’t take the
kids’ papers, and it was impossible to get visas for them,” González says.
Over the last two summers, since the start of the war, the NGOs have
also had to deal with parents who were suspicious of the work they were doing.
“There are some Ukrainian families who were afraid of sending their
children to Spain because they thought that, given the situation in their country,
[the children] were not going to come back,” González says.
However, the fact that the children have to return to Ukraine after
the summer is non-negotiable, and these NGOs say they make this clear from the start.
“The families know that this program has an end, and that the
Ukrainian kids must always go back to their homes and orphanages,” González says.
Idoia Imaz, a Spanish woman who has been fostering the same
Ukrainian girl for six consecutive years, says the child is happy to go home
when the summer in Spain ends.
“Even though she comes to Spain very excited, she also returns to
Ukraine happily,” Imaz says of her summer foster child.
In some cases the Spanish families that are fostering a kid for the
first time also receive special training.
“We visited a psychologist in order to learn about how to foster a
kid who has come from such a difficult situation,” Imaz said.
While all of the children have to return to Ukraine at the end of
the summer, they still keep in touch with their Spanish foster families over the
whole year.
“Many Spanish families send food, clothes and whatever the kids may
need over the year in Ukraine,” says González.
And for Imaz, the Ukrainian child she fosters over the summer is
already part of her Spanish family.
“We really enjoy the time we spend with her; she is part of our
family now, and we can’t imagine a summer without her,” Imaz says.
Kyiv Post summer intern
Pablo Gabilondo can be reached at [email protected].
