Children of different ages are brought up in foster families, conditions for family communication, development and socialization are created for them. Therefore, supporting families who take care of such children is an important step in building a stable social system that guarantees the safety, well-being and family care and upbringing of every Ukrainian child, and this is especially important during the war, when orphans increased significantly. Currently, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber (LAP) provides food for long-term storage to more than 120 children – orphans and children deprived of parental care. In order to get acquainted with the living conditions of children, to better understand the needs of the families who take care of them, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber periodically visits these houses as part of monitoring visits.
So, on March 20, the head of the Lviv Agrarian Chamber Ihor Vuytsyk and LAP monitoring officer David Kravchenko visited two houses in the Sheptytsky district of the Radekhiv community – the DBST of the Lukach family and the DBST of the Lviv family Tomkiv.
Eight children live in the family-type orphanage of the Lukacs family, two of whom are relatives of the couple. Six pupils are orphans from the city of Mykolaiv, Stryi District, Lviv Region. The Lukacs family built the house with their own efforts and created the necessary conditions for the upbringing and harmonious development of children.
“For me, it’s not just a hobby or a job, it’s part of my life. I can no longer imagine myself without children. In the future, we plan to take even more children under our care. Of course, it is difficult. Both materially and physically. We have to take care of each child, feed, clothe, help with lessons – not to mention daily housework. And all this requires a lot of money. We do not receive special help – only these funds, which are paid by the state for the maintenance of orphans. That is why the support of Lvivska is so important to us of the Agrarian Chamber, because the products are very expensive now. This is an extremely big help for our family. We are sincerely grateful to the Lviv Agrarian Chamber and the UN World Food Program for their support: the products we receive are of high quality and useful, and their regular supply is a guarantee of stable and complete nutrition for our children,” said Ms. Olga.
Ms. Olga familiarized the LAP representatives with the children’s living conditions, showed the kitchen and storage facilities. Unfortunately, during the visit of the monitoring group, all the children were at school, so there was no communication with them, but Ms. Olga invited the monitoring group to visit them during the holidays, when all the children will definitely be at home. Members of the monitoring group spoke about the operation of the UN WFP Institutional Nutrition Program, inquired about the needs of the family and left information materials for a more detailed study of the Program. The family-type children’s home of the Tomki family takes care of 11 children. The eldest girl is already a student at Lviv University, and 10 children are schoolchildren, including one child with a disability. There is also an orphan boy whose father died in the war. The children come from different cities of the Lviv region, in particular from Skole and Kamianka-Buzka. At the time of the monitoring group’s visit, there were only two children at home who did not attend school due to illness. The children helped their mother-educator, Svitlana Tomkiv, in the kitchen. LAP representatives witnessed the family preparing a large cupcake for dinner when the children return from school. The house smelled of fresh baked goods and a warm family atmosphere prevailed. Ms. Svitlana was very happy with the products she received. “We very often prepare various buttery pastries, because children love them very much, and we also bake bread and for this we use a lot of flour, sugar and oil. Children also like macaroni and buckwheat. All the products received are a great help for us and we are sincerely grateful that our DBST is involved in the UN WFP Institutional Nutrition Program. We also thank the Lviv Agrarian Chamber, which regularly delivers products and is interested in our needs. We have great hope that this wonderful program will continue to operate because it is extremely important for such small institutions as our orphanage. Philanthropists pay more attention to large orphanages, where there are many children, and DBST is deprived of help”, – emphasized Ms. Svitlana.
Ms. Svitlana noted the very good quality of the products. Their dishes are high-quality and nutritious. And she also emphasized that there is not enough meat products and it would be great if the food basket of the Institutional Nutrition Program also contained meat semi-finished products – stews, canned food, etc. alt=””> Understanding the importance of helping small social institutions, the Lviv Agrarian Chamber, as a cooperating partner of the UN World Food Program, plans to expand support to family-type orphanages and other social institutions in 2025 to to provide even more needy people in the territory of Western Ukraine with the necessary help.
Source. Lviv Agrarian Chamber