Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees

In the fall of 2025, Peace Winds installed a large industrial energy storage system and an inverter to Chernihiv’s No.72 Kindergarten in northern Ukraine so that 200 children can enjoy hot meals every day even under frequent power outages. They were installed with generous contributions by the Japanese people.

With continuous Russian attacks on infrastructures, people in Ukraine suffer from frequent power outages. Children and teachers need to stay in the dark, cold shelter underground during air-raid alerts and the kitchen cannot be used without electricity. Chefs in the kitchen did their best to provide meals for the children by starting their preparation early in the morning before electricity was scheduled to be cut off (to save electricity). And children were often served cold meals.

Peace Winds originally planned to install generators so that the kindergarten has electricity when necessary, but later learned that energy storage system was safer and more reliable considering the fact that they may not always have access to fuel. So, we purchased an industrial energy storage system and an inverter to supplement for the time when electricity is cut off.

Now the kindergarten can count on stable electricity, kitchen is in full use providing hot meals to children. 

However, when our field officers visited the kindergarten in mid-September, we found children’s energy rather low. We were told they had air-raid alerts nearly every day and they had to spend a lot of time underground.

Even though the difficult time continues with no end of the war in sight, we hope that at least children have hot meals while they spend their time at the kindergarten.

Winter is drawing near and life in Ukraine becomes quite difficult. Peace Winds continues our efforts to be with the people of Ukraine and to support them. We appreciate your continuous support. Thank you very much.

Peace Winds, in cooperation with an Ukrainian NGO Eleos Ukraine, started “Family Hub” activities, in which we provide free legal, social, and psychological support for war-affected women, children, internally displaced people and local residents, in Zviahel City in Zhytomyr Oblast, about 50 km west of Kyiv. Currently the activities take place in our temporary venue while we work on establishing more permanent facility for the activities. We hope to start full-scale activities in the new facility in the fall.

As the Russian attack on Ukraine continues for more than three and a half years, more and more people suffer from various problems in connection with the war. Peace Winds provide legal advice and psychological support by experts at this Family Hub so that people do not have to tackle problems on their own. Visitors can also get information about children’s schools or job opportunities, if necessary.

As for legal advice, experts would help people with filing documents necessary to receive pension, public support, or documents related to real estates and so on. People can also seek advice and support in cases of domestic violence at this Family Hub.

A 77-year-old woman was able to submit an application for a registration to a refugee-assistance organization after a staff at the Family Hub helped her with compiling necessary documents.

As for psychological support, we recommend people to join group activities at the Family Hub so that they could meet people in similar situations under the war and support each other. One of the group activities is art therapy workshop in which soldiers’ wives and mothers learn to express their feelings or learn how to cope with anxieties and sense of loss through art. Individual counselling sessions are also available at the Family Hub.

A 49-year-old woman, who lives with her son and in-laws while her husband is away in the military, suffered from insomnia and was unable to feel joy in life since she started feeling that she is burdened with everything all by herself. However, she withheld these feelings because she felt it was inappropriate to talk about her personal issues when everyone bears the burden of the war. After consulting with psychotherapist at the Family Hub, she started to feel better and it shows on her face.

We provide psychological support for children and teenagers in coordination with their guardians. Specialists who are well versed in adolescent psychology help minors with their control of emotions, self-esteem, or with ways to handle bullying and so on.

Our staff and specialists at the Family Hub strive to make this place safe, comfortable and hopeful for anyone in the community.

This project has been made possible with grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and generous support of the people. . We appreciate your continued support.