Updates from Ukraine: Stories from Scouts in the field

Since the war in Ukraine escalated last year, more than 7 million Ukrainian refugees have sought safety throughout Europe. Those who have stayed in Ukraine, including over 5 million internally displaced people, have lived in instability and insecurity for the past year, with sirens and bombings a regular occurrence in the east and south.

The National Organization of Scouts of Ukraine (NOSU), and their Scouting brothers and sisters in neighbouring countries, have been exemplary in helping children and their families throughout the crisis.

By crowdfunding over USD700,000 and providing emergency grants, World Scouting has supported the tremendous humanitarian efforts of NOSU and National Scout Organizations in Poland, Moldova, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechia.

Let’s look at how Scouts and volunteer Scout Leaders from the National Organization of Scouts of Ukraine have helped improve people’s lives during this challenging time.

Scouts are prepared for swift emergency responses

According to Nadya Melnychuk, a Scout Leader in Dnipro, national and global collaboration happened quickly to help children in Ukraine:

• The Scouts of Ukraine created a special humanitarian relief team right away;
• World Scouting organised an emergency appeal on the Scout Donation Platform;
• World Scouting and UNICEF partnered to provide critical care and support in Ukraine and neighbouring countries;
• The World Scout Foundation disbursed grants for emergency medical supplies; and
• Scout Leaders in occupied territories coordinated and delivered supplies by bike.

By mid-March 2022, World Scouting’s crowdfunding effort surpassed half a million dollars thanks to the generosity of Scouts worldwide, including individuals, Scout group fundraisers, BP fellows and more.

Providing mental health support to children through Scouting and training

By organising activities and camps, Scouts are helping make it possible for children who were forced to move to make new friends and know they matter. Ukrainian Scout Leaders have continued Scouting activities as much as possible, often online, to help keep young people connected, entertained and supported. They brought in special guests like musicians to offer a reprieve from the trauma of the war, as well as psychologists to provide vital mental health and psycho-social support.

Through a partnership and financial support from World Scouting and UNICEF, NOSU has also been training Scout Leaders in Ukraine on psychological first aid and fundamentals of Scouting as they work closely with displaced young people.

Kateryna Murashova, a young Ukrainian Scout Leader in Dnipro, says the simple things make a difference for children and internally displaced people during these times, such as “making armbands and pictures for kids, making little figurines they could use as key rings, and organising many meetings.”

In Odesa, Ukrainian Nastya Chuhui ran activities with her Scout friends such as art classes, tours, educational programmes and summer camps for internally displaced people involving more than 150 children and youth.

Distributing warm clothes, food and vital medicines

Scouts always look out for each other and make sure that everyone is included - especially those under-resourced or in need of a helping hand. Nastya not only started collecting supplies but created a volunteer network to multiply her efforts.

By approaching neighbours to help, she eventually had more than 100 families volunteering to gather and deliver warm clothes, food, hygiene materials and other supplies to people facing challenges in their community, such as people with disabilities and unemployed parents.

Through the coordination of NOSU, Scout Leader Maryna Synelnykova and her husband have helped with everything from providing temporary accommodations to packing and distributing boxes of supplies throughout Dnipro. Maryna says: “When you distribute the packages, every person has a story to tell… it sends shivers down your spine.”

In hubs where internally displaced people have gathered throughout Ukraine, where a large number of individuals and families live in dormitories, many supplies have fallen short, including vital medicines and first aid.

Nadya Melnychuk, a Scout Leader in Dnipro, coordinates a logistics team, in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to transport humanitarian cargo from Europe and the United States to places where internally displaced people have converged like Odesa and Dnipro in Ukraine. Even when medicines were extremely hard to come by Nadya managed to coordinate challenging logistics to get them to people in need.

Ukrainian Scouts are committed to doing more

Scouts in Ukraine have been working tirelessly to improve the lives of Ukrainians in the last year, and they don’t plan to stop soon. Volodymyr Izvarin, Chairperson for NOSU, says: “The hardest time is before the dawn. If you find yourself in a hard situation, it means that the sun is about to rise.“

In coming weeks, Scouts in the Ukranian cities of Mykolaiv and Dnipro will help distribute donations of medical humanitarian aid from France, including crutches, wheelchairs, beds and medications. These supplies will help amputated civilians in centres caring for civilian victims of missile strikes.

World Scouting’s Global, Eurasian and European Support Centres continue to work closely with NOSU and National Scout Organizations in neighbouring countries to asses humanitarian and fundraising needs. 

The Scouts of Ukraine send their sincere thanks to everyone who has helped - from sending messages of support to pictures or donations. They feel the support of Scouts everywhere and will continue to live their Scout promise and law while creating a better world.

Special thanks to Scouts Stella Stoyanova, Maryna Synelnykova, Kateryna Polischuk, Anastasia (Nastya) Chuhui, Maksym Yehorov, Kateryna Murashova, Maria Kostiuchenko, Mykyta Rohutskyi, Nadya Melnychuk and Volodymyr Izvarin for their exceptional volunteer work and for joining this interview to share updates on their efforts in Ukraine.

You can donate to World Scouting, including Scouts’ work on humanitarian action here:

https://worldscoutfoundation.org/annualappeal