Ukrainian children spent over 900 hours in shelters last year
Over the past year, Ukrainian children have spent an average of 920 hours, or more than 38 days, in shelters underground due to air raids, Russian rocket strikes and hostilities.
This was reported by the international organisation Save the Children.
According to Save the Children, last year, 16,207 air alerts sounded in Ukraine, which lasted about an hour on average.
Some families could spend up to eight hours underground, unable to go out due to continuous rocket attacks. More than 1,700 sirens with a total duration of about 1,500 hours were announced in Kharkiv last year, and more than 1,100 hours in Donetsk and Zaporizhia oblasts.
Representatives of the organisation talked with adults and children who are forced to spend a lot of time in shelters.
"We were all crying, scared to death," recalls 16-year-old Sofia, who woke up to explosions and sirens on 24 February 2022, in Kharkiv.
Now the girl and her grandmother live in Zakarpattia. This oblast is considered one of the safest, but sirens are heard here often.
When an air-raid alert is issued, Sofia usually goes to the dark and cold basement that is under their house. At school, while the siren lasts, high school students are taken to the village council, where a shelter has been set up.
"It takes us five minutes to run there, 15 minutes to walk there. But I've always wondered if the siren goes off during a power outage and we don't hear the sirens and there's a rocket strike, how long would it take me to get to the shelter... It took me 47 seconds," Sofia says.
Svitlana, a teacher from a suburban kindergarten in Dnipro, said that air-alarm sirens have long become a part of her pupils' lives.
"They get dressed, go outside, go around the institution and go down to the shelter. It takes about three minutes for the children to go down," says the teacher.
The basement of the institution is now equipped for painting, games and dancing. Also, each child brings a grab-and-go bag, warm clothes and favourite toys.
"We are in the basement because there is a siren on the street. We came here and we don't hear it anymore. I like to play and draw here," says 4-year-old Oleh.
As the teacher says, the children even like to go to the shelter, which they call a "cave".
In Kyiv and Kharkiv, people hide in metro stations during air raids.
"When the planes take off, we prepare. I was scared in the first days of the war, but now it's commonplace. Everyone has their own backpack. They take it and go out," says Maryna, a mother of two children.
Going to the subway after a rocket launch is now a habit for many families.
12-year-old Olena shared what she usually does in the shelter.
"I use my smartphone when I'm anxious. I can do my homework there. We're underground because rockets are being fired at us, and for our safety, it's better to sit here. It's boring. But it's better to be bored than to be in pain."
The stress of everyday life under bombardment harms the mental health and psychosocial conditions of children and adults.
The World Health Organization estimates that one in five combat survivors is at high risk of some form of mental illness.
"A year ago, the conflict that escalated into a full-scale war, dramatically changed the lives of millions of children in Ukraine. Thousands of families were forced to flee their homes to escape atrocities. Many children witnessed how their homes and schools were destroyed, and their loved ones were killed. As the war now starts its second year, children continue to witness new waves of violence," says Sonia Khush, Director of the Save the Children programme in Ukraine.
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