Do you remember what you were doing this time last year, John?
16-year-old Nataliia,* like countless other children from Ukraine, will never forget the sound of the explosions she woke up to on Feb. 24, 2022.
At first, Nataliia and her family didn’t believe their ears. Then, they checked their phones and saw a message from relatives: “There’s a war in your country.”
As violence intensified, Save the Children immediately scaled up efforts across the region to support children like Nataliia and their families, providing basic necessities, cash assistance and child-friendly spaces. This was largely thanks to the Children’s Emergency Fund, which allows us to jump into action at a moment’s notice to support children when emergencies strike.
After the war escalated, Nataliia and her family spent weeks sheltering in a friend’s basement. They evacuated to Kyiv and returned months later to find a damaged home and a school with fewer students. Today, she and her sisters continue to cope with the harsh realities of ongoing war.
“When any air raid alert sounds … we must take our things and immediately go down to the shelter and wait out the alarm,”
says Nataliia, who’s grown used to the sound of sirens at school and doing her homework by flashlight to conserve energy.
