this “third winter of war will be the most difficult for children”, warns the president of Unicef ​​France

In addition to the loss of learning, Ukrainian children have accumulated trauma and anxiety disorders since the start of the war in February 2022.

The Ukrainians will face their third winter of war. An entire population has had to adapt to very difficult living conditions for almost three years, particularly children and adolescents. The war prevents them from having a normal education, which risks leaving indelible marks on an entire generation. This “third winter of war will be the most difficult for Ukrainian children”alerts Adeline Hazan, president of Unicef ​​France, who returns from a trip to Ukraine.

And “nearly a million” children live near the front line, “everywhere they suffer the horrors of war”, “no one is spared”, worries Adeline Hazan. A year and a half: this is the delay accumulated by the Ukrainians according to specialists. Five million people saw their education disrupted after the war broke out in February 2022. Today, three out of four children still cannot go to school in person due to lack of safe shelter: “There is both the loss of learning, of schooling in the strict sense of the term, but also a loss of sociability.”

Added to this are psychological disorders: “Anxiety, depression too… We have placed a lot of emphasis on anxiety disorders because these are children who often wake up at night because of alerts, who have to go to shelters in the middle of the night. These are children, for almost the entirety, who do not have their father at home since all the men are at the front, and who are only raised by their mother With all that it also means for mothers to take care of the mental burden. of their children without their husband, without the certainty of having enough food, heating, etc.

“Permanent anxiety among mothers which affects children.”

Adeline Hazan, Unicef France

at franceinfo

According to Unicef, at least 2,000 children have been killed or injured since the start of the war at the end of February 2022. Create a bubble where the youngest hear as little as possible about the war and its deaths: the teams of UNICEF is working towards this with the complicity of Ukrainian teachers who have chosen to stay in their country. “There is a lot of work done on managing the emotions of adolescents and children so that they can express their anxiety. The idea is to ensure that they can have moments of “Normal childhood and adolescence, in a life that is completely abnormal. War is completely antithetical to childhood.”

Unicef ​​France is relaunching a call for donations. “Let's not forget these Ukrainian children, let's not leave them by the side of the road”, even if “the emotion has passed”says Adeline Hazan. An entire generation is growing up with the trauma of war. Hence the importance of the financial support provided to NGOs whose priority is to protect children while the outpouring of generosity has run out of steam since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.