European Disability Forum

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Neighbourly Solidarity

Neighbourly Solidarity

In the days and weeks just after February 2022, activists across the region responded to the quickly developing needs of the masses of people escaping the Russian war in Ukraine.

Organisations of Persons with Disabilities in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and EDF in Belgium raised funds from CBM to respond to the enormous humanitarian needs of the people leaving Ukraine.

Michaela Hajduková from Slovakia National Forum of Persons with Disabilities described her visit to a refugees centre in Uzhgorod best: “We went to visit the temporary centre and behind every door there was a story unfolding: One had a older woman reading children stories, another had a rehabilitation working with a patient, another there was cooking and yet anther was people talking and organising about what had happened and what they need to do to find a way to cope.”

The initiative sent food, hygiene equipment, beads, linen, clothes, food, baby formula, and assistive devices for persons with disabilities that had been forced to flee without the vital wheelchairs, canes, medicines and other essential care items they needed on a daily basis.

Children with disabilities

Children with disabilities

For children with disabilities, family is protection. Sadly, prior to the war, Ukraine had a relatively high rate of children separated from families and raised in the country’s care system – possibly the highest rate in Europe. 

The needs of children with disabilities that are refugees or displaced fall between the cracks because they are seldom catered for by either the child protection, migration or disability based response mechanisms because of the intersecting nature of their situation.

A lack of disability disaggregated data means that we can only estimate the number of Ukrainian children with disabilities that were displaced early 2022. Real figures are unknown. Estimates are at 220 000 children.

Children living in birth families and foster families are considerably better protected than children living in institutions. Institutions are inherently harmful and family-based care reduces risk of abuse, neglect, harm, developmental delays, exclusion from the community and avoidable deaths.