Even under the bombs thanks toUnicef there is hope. TO Kievthe non-profit foundation that has always been on the side of childhood, thanks to the collaboration with the Ukrainian railways opened a sort of play area for children at station central. In the huge railway station in the center of the capital, children and their parents can rest, play educational games and entertain health care and services of mental health in an area of seven hundred square meters – the new Spilno Child Spot it is the largest ever opened so far. A pride for Unicef which has never backed down during these months of war. To tell us the situation directly is the Italian spokesman, Andrea Jameswho is in constant contact with colleagues working in Ukraine: “We stopped counting i children affected: to date the official numbers speak of 1500 minors dead but we know it’s an underestimated number. The destruction of diga di Kakhovka made them flee their homes hundreds of families with children who are now without drinking water, electricity. We are assisting them. We have opened small Spilnos in that area too and we will support the families”.
Iacomini is very worried about the illnesses that will infect these children: “We will have a nutritional crisis with a country on its knees. We are present in Ukraine before the start of the war. We had already launched the alarm In the Donetsk where were after the 2014 over 500,000 minors in humanitarian emergency. In Kiev we are trying to donate normality and allow them to move forward, look to the future”. To date, Unicef had inaugurated two other spaces at Kharkiv e Lvivbut these days it has given way to this new reality which has different sections: a sports and play area created by the movement “JuniorS Healthy Youth”, a football corner of theFc Lokomotiv and a science museum with railway exhibits of the Ukrainian Junior Academy of Sciences.
In Kiev it is now known to all as “Iron Land“: there it is possible to recharge the smartphone (which is not a given in war) and the children can relax, play e learn thanks to one librarygames and a model of a real train”Tarpan” high-speed on display, with cockpit access. Not only that: they are also available private rooms for thefeeding time and of the locker rooms. “Spilno centers are meeting points for children – he said Murat Sahin, Unicef representative in Ukraine – where they spend time with their peers. The Spilno network is one platform for integrated services. By opening Ukraine’s largest Spilno center in the Kiev railway station, we are giving children all over Ukraine the opportunity to realize their potential and feel safe despite the war. Children who participate in development activities today will be tomorrow’s leaders for Ukraine’s recovery”. Since it opened, the center has been a bustle of children who, despite the conflict, the sound ofanti-aircraft alarmor, the fear they are confronted with every day, they found entertainers ed educators ready to let them live normality again.
“It was important to us not only to create a children’s area of alta qualitybut also provide a tangible example of systematic assistance to all passengers at all stages of their journey,” he said Yevhen LyashchenkoPresident of Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian Railways. “This is also an example of the transformations – continued the president – which are taking place in Ukraine despite the war and this will encourage Ukrainian families to return in their country. The four million Ukrainians evacuated by trains mostly women and children, they are the future of our country and we must create all the conditions for them comfortable return”.
Credit Foto © UNICEF/UN0819983/Skyba