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Emergency Early Childhood Development Support for Ukrainian Refugees

The Emergency Early Childhood Development Support for Ukrainian Refugees (ECDUR) project aimed to provide emergency support to Ukrainian families with children who have, or at risk of developmental delays and have been displaced in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Poland or Moldova.

Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 7 million people have fled their homes and crossed into neighbouring countries.

Over 2 million children have fled Ukraine since the outbreak of war in February 2022. Around 600,000 are young children, under the age of five, and many of them have developmental risks, delays, or difficulties. Families of children with, or at risk of developmental difficulties are struggling to access support services in all parts of Europe. In many cases, being unable to access support, therapy, or early intervention, as well as trauma related to displacement, may negatively affect child development and wellbeing.

Some of the critical issues in service provision include:

  • The lack of trained professionals to provide family-centred Early Childhood Intervention and parental counseling on early childhood development (ECD).
  • Weak national Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) systems are not able to meet the demand of the domestic population, nor expand the provision to refugee children and parents in need.

This project to support refugee children and families was made possible with generous contributions from the U.S. Government, people and corporate partners from Belgium and Denmark through the Belgium and Danish National Committees for UNICEF.

Emergency Support- who to contact

  • If you are displaced and currently living in Moldova, please contact moldova@khs.org | Якщо ви рятуєтеся від війни у Молдові, будь ласка, звертайтеся за адресою moldova@khs.org
  • If you are displaced and currently living in Bulgaria, please contact info@thesocialteahouse.bg | Якщо ви рятуєтеся від війни у Болгарії, будь ласка, звертайтеся за адресою info@thesocialteahouse.bg
  • If you are displaced and currently living in Slovakia, please contact Zhannat Mukhamadiyeva via zhannat.mukhamadiyeva@tenenet.sk | Якщо ви рятуєтеся від війни у Словаччині, будь ласка, звертайтеся до Жанни Мухамадієвої за адресою zhannat.mukhamadiyeva@tenenet.sk 
  • If you are displaced and currently living in Poland, please contact Mariia Pavlova via ecdur@fundacjaimago.pl | Якщо ви рятуєтеся від війни у Польщі, будь ласка, звертайтеся до Марії Павлової за адресою ecdur@fundacjaimago.pl 
  • If you are displaced and currently living in Romania, please contact Daniela Pasăre via daniela.pasare@fonss.ro | Якщо ви рятуєтеся від війни у Румунії, будь ласка, звертайтеся до Даніели Расере Мухамадієвої за адресою daniela.pasare@fonss.ro

 

Aims

In July 2022, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) launched an 18-month partnership project that aimed to:

  • Increase the availability of trained Family Consultants who will provide ECD parental counselling and support to children at risk of or with developmental difficulties, including delays and disabilities. 
  • Support system strengthening for the provision of ECI services in host countries.
  • Raise awareness of the importance of early support for developing the potential for every child as well as build awareness around the main problems identified around ECI at both a national and EU level.

The initiative was implemented in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria.

Target Groups

  • Ukrainian refugee parents and family members of children with, or at risk of developmental delay
  • Ukrainian refugee professionals with a background in childhood development
  • Support service providers in the partner countries
  • Local and national policy makers
  • EU policy makers
  • General public

Activities

The project is comprised of several key work streams:

Stream 1: Training of Family Consultants and Peer Support Group Facilitators

Stream 2: Support for System Strengthening for Bordering Countries

Stream 3: Advocacy at National and European Level

The list of activities include:
  • Training of 40 Emergency Early Childhood Development Trainers, who will go onto train Ukrainian refugees and provide ongoing support.
  • Training of 500 refugee professionals with a background in childhood development to enable them to provide emergency support to families with children with, or at risk of, developmental difficulties. 
  • Training of 800 refugee parents to enable them to provide peer-to-peer parental support groups to other displaced families.
  • Research into the capacity of social sectors in border countries to Ukraine to respond to refugees coming from Ukraine.
  • Development of an individual National Plans for building up capacity of social sectors with concrete measures for them to be able to deliver ECI and other services to children with disabilities, including those displaced due to the Ukraine war.
  • Tailored national capacity building activities to support the implementation of these plans.
  • Awareness raising events at an EU and National level to raise awareness for the main problems around ECI at both national and EU levels and possible solutions.

Project News

Duration

July 2022-December 2023

National Partners

Contact

Lyzaveta Drannikova, EASPD, lyzaveta.drannikova@easpd.eu