THE DISPLACEMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE
Petra Institute Partner: Children Mission International
“We came over the initial shock of the war that broke out in our country and realised that we should continue with our calling from God to equip people for effective ministry to children.” - Lyuda Bryn, Executive Director of Children Mission International, a partner organisation of Petra Institute.
A media release from UNICEF posted on 24 March 2022 gave the following statistics on the displacement of children:
“One month of the war in Ukraine has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children – more than half of the country’s estimated 7.5 million child population. This includes more than 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighbouring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are now internally displaced inside Ukraine.”
“The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This is a grim milestone that could have lasting consequences for generations to come. Children’s safety, well-being, and access to essential services are all under threat from non-stop violence.”
Despite having had to flee to other parts of Ukraine and abroad, the team from Children Mission in Ukraine started compiling and publishing resources on social media for children’s ministry workers and parents. The resources vary from videos on games for children to express their anger and stress; dealing with post-traumatic stress for different age groups; a therapeutic Bible story to address the traumatic experiences the children encounter with answers from the Bible, and reminding children of the greatness and power of God helping the righteous in times of trouble.
Petra Institute's involvement
Several express online courses of 1 hour per day over 3 days have been presented based on some elements of our Walking with Wounded Children Course.
Within a few hours after posting it on social media, there were 50 enrolments. Another course was then planned for the next week. One of the participants even posted a story on Instagram, and when asked about her impressions of the first meeting she wrote:
"It was very useful. I feel much more at ease and as if my mind was enlightened. Thanks a lot!"
Children Mission International team members serving on the ground
Meanwhile, Olya, one of the team members of Children Mission and her family were trapped in a church in Mariupol for 21 days. With them were about 140 people amidst extremely difficult and tense circumstances with continuous bombings. While there, they preached to people, encouraging them. Fortunately, they managed to leave Mariupol before the devastating bombings started.
Lyuda also met with different ministries where they shared what they can do. Most of them have resources that can be used. Lyuda will do a road trip to the Eastern part of Ukraine to L’viv and then to Poland and Austria.
The purpose of these visits will be to see what the situation is and work on a strategy of effectively reaching out to people within Ukraine and the rest of Europe, and identify people who can be trained as tutors of the Walking with Wounded Children Course.
Please continue to intercede for the situation and people in Ukraine.
