The children of Ukraine in the refugees centres need activities.
You can help, too!

If you close your eyes, you might think you’re in some kind of afterschool, because all you can hear is the voices of small children playing quietly, discreetly, without that typical explosion of energy and enthusiasm.

If you open your eyes, you can see the eyes of parents, ie mothers or aunts or grandmothers and then you notice the abyss on whose edge they cling on only because they have to take care of children.

Women stare blankly, teenagers are clued to their phones, kids are in their universe, it’s an unnatural semi-silence. They all sit in their rooms, on their beds, as if clinging to the little material they still have after they have left everything behind to escape the war.

We have a call for help for you who are reading this text.

Refugee children from Ukraine need, in addition to basic needs such as shelter, food and warmth, to be involved in any coordinated, consistent and constant educational and entertainment activity that consumes their energy in a constructive way.

About 18,000 children in Ukraine are in Romania with their mothers in refugee centres and other locations, according to the latest official figures released on March 7. A considerable number are in Bucharest.

For them, we created the “Kaia Activity Centres”, a daily program for children in refugee centres organized by the authorities.

It includes various activities for a few hours a day: games coordinated by volunteers, recreational activities (dance, arts, magician, physical education), educational activities (introductory courses in English, Romanian), coordinated by teachers, students and volunteer students.

Kaia is a program created and coordinated by the V + O Communication agency with a group of 20 volunteers from several countries, with experience in crisis management.

“I make a call for volunteers for this project through which we want to help refugee children to benefit from a series of activities during the day, which will ensure them a minimum continuity of education and, at the same time, an occupation. It’s good for both children and their mothers. Most of them are emotionally exhausted and any help we can offer is welcomed”, said Loredana Vişa, general manager of V+O Communication and initiator of the Kaia program.

The innovation of the “Kaia Activity Centres” program lies in its flexibility, as it is designed to be implemented in places where refugees are housed – centres or hotels or other temporary residential spaces. It is also a modular program, which can be scaled or adjusted according to needs and availability.

“The idea is to go where the children are with their mothers, because we can’t pretend that they could commute from accommodation to a certain address in a foreign city. We want to provide these children with a daily schedule that includes various activities for a few hours, to keep them busy and to give their mothers a moment of rest. We start in Bucharest, we will do our best to organize such centres in other cities as well”, explained Loredana Vişa.

We, those already involved in this project, make a call on the Romanian business community to contribute to the “Kaia Activity Centres” with volunteers, toys, internet, computers, furniture, food, water, shoes or funds to purchase the listed above.

We are also looking for volunteers to get involved in our activities that will be opened in the refugee centres provided by public or private institutions.

We thank the volunteers and the companies and associations that have already joined us in this endeavour.

You can also contact us at contact@kaiacenter.ro for details, at volunteer@kaiacenter.ro for enrolling as volunteers, respectively at donate@kaiacenter.ro for donations.