Saving the Ukrainian Children

Still in a playful mood, 9-year-old Alisa was oblivious of the horrific situation that was gradually unfolding about the Ukrainian town of Irpin after Russia invaded in late February. Undeterred by the loud noises of the mortar shelling, little Alisha kept a vigil of her family at their home. Each time hearing a loud noise, she would prompt her family to move away from the windows to a safer part of their home. Eventually, after a mortar shell crashed into their apartment building damaging a part of it, Alisha’s mother realized the gravity of the situation and immediately planned to evacuate her family. On March 6th with the support of a local church volunteer, Alisha’s mother led the mission of her family escaping the conflict zone. Unfortunately, their mission ended up in a catastrophe. While attempting to cross a damaged bridge, they were hit by a mortar shell, instantly killing the entire family on the spot. Near to their bloodied, lifeless bodies there lay scattered little Alisha’s luggage, including her favorite toys and books, creating a heart wrenching scene. Little Alisha displayed a great deal of courage at this young age in engaging and motivating her family in the face of severe adversity until the very last moment. The world abruptly lost a potentially responsible citizen in Alisha along with her family.

13-year-old Volodymyr, unable to walk or move owing to his gunfire injuries, lies on the bed in the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv. He miraculously survived a firing, while his father and cousin couldn’t, when their car was hit by gunfire after the Russian invasion. ?He is being treated for serious gunfire injuries in his jaw, back, arm and leg. Staring listlessly at the ceiling of the darkened hospital room, Volodymyr attempts to play with a green ballooned dog kept beside him on the bed. Gesturing with teary eyes, he keeps enquiring about their family dog whose whereabouts he is still unsure of. ?Before the war broke out Volodymyr would love to take their family dog out for a walk every day. He, hopefully, would fully recover from his serious injuries to be able to walk again and to take their dog out for a walk, if both manage to survive through the perils of the war. ?

The stories of Alisha and Volodymyr are those of thousands of children in Ukraine.

We are fortunate and privileged to lead a reasonably safer life, taking the assurances of safety almost for granted. But there are others such as Alisha, Volodymyr and their families, who are not so fortunate. Every night the Ukrainians go to sleep without any guarantee that they would wake up alive the next morning nor with a certainty that they would see their children alive again. The biggest sufferers are the Ukrainian children as the Russian invaders have indiscriminately and inhumanely targeted the children’s hospitals, kindergartens, and schools. ?Every moment the Ukrainian children face potential life-threatening incidents from mortar shelling, missile attack and aerial bombing. Several occasions they either get killed as happened to Alisha or get severely injured as is with Volodymyr or become orphaned as many others. Those children who survive face slow death from starvation, malnutrition, and malnourishment. It is distressing to see the corpses of children lying on the neighborhood streets where they should be walking joyfully with their families, on the playgrounds where they should be gleefully playing ball games with friends and in the hospitals where they should be well recovering from their ailments with appropriate medical care.

The surviving Ukrainian children still love the things that children in any other part of the world might do. Their parents, like parents in any other part of the world, won’t want their children to be exposed to the perilous life-threatening situations posed by the Russian war. The only option they have is to take refuge in another peaceful country / region. Children belong to the world, not to any specific realm, region, or community. As global citizens, we all have the collective responsibilities of their safety and well beings. We must do everything possible to get those innocent smiles back on the faces of the Ukrainian children. It is compassion, if nothing else, should move us to permit these families seeking refuge within our safer territories, at least, for the sake of those young ones. Given the proper environment and support, those young minds such as Alisha, whose life was abruptly cut short, could otherwise grow up to be potentially responsible global citizens. Some of them could flourish to be successful entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and environmentalists among others. Some could possibly end up finding the next Apple or Google of the tech world. Some others could help find breakthrough solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing the Humanity – averting the next pandemic, preventing chronic diseases such as Cancer / AIDS / Alzheimer's?and saving our planet from the global warming.. The choice is ours- let’s use it responsibly.

If you like to help the Ukrainian children / refugees, you could follow the links below. Your gift will provide emergency relief and rescue to the families and children still trapped in Ukraine:

https://www.unicef.org/

https://www.unrefugees.org/

https://www.unhcr.org/