The work of Terre des Hommes in Ukraine
Terre des Hommes Italy has been present in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022. The war has forced 5.6 million Ukrainians to flee abroad and caused the displacement of a further 3.7 million people within the country (2025 figures). The conflict has damaged or destroyed over 1.4 million homes, mainly in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia, as well as various key infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and other essential services.
At least 12.7 million people require humanitarian assistance in order to fulfil urgent needs such as medical care, livelihoods, protection, and education.
What we do
In 2026, our activities have been centred around the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumi and Odessa areas and aim to support over 22,000 vulnerable people, including children, displaced families, and people with disabilities.
We are continuing to support various Child Friendly Spaces and Community Centres where children and adolescents can benefit from recreational activities, structured psychosocial support, and engage in socio-emotional learning to process trauma caused by the war. Psychological counselling services are also open to parents and caregivers.
To reach the most isolated and rural areas, we have set up mobile units that provide lifesaving services and basic medical and psychological first-aid for those who are unable to travel. For families in extreme hardship, we distribute basic necessities (food and clothing) or financial contributions to be spent on improving living conditions of children.
In addition, as part of our response to the cold emergency this winter, we are supporting those living near the front line in the Kharkiv and Sumi regions, where the power grid was devastated by Russian attacks, by distributing heating pellets, warm clothes and cash to the most vulnerable families.
A key element of our work is the communities capacity building through the training of authorities, medical personnel and local workers on topics such as child protection, social inclusion and the prevention of gender-based violence. This participatory approach aims at empowering communities to manage emergencies by integrating awareness-raising campaigns that promote a culture of protection and respect.
Our past work
During the first year of the conflict, we provided medicines, medical supplies and life-saving equipment — such as incubators, defibrillators, ventilators, and an ambulance — to Ukrainian health facilities that were most under pressure, including paediatric hospitals in Mykolaiv and Kharkiv, the Cherkasy Regional Hospital and Hospital No. 7 in Kyiv.
In Mykolaiv, we helped set up two tents offering basic medical services and psychological and psychosocial assistance to vulnerable people, mostly elderly women. In parts of the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, close to the frontline, we conducted mine awareness campaigns, reaching over 34,000 people, including boys and girls.
For Ukrainian refugees in Italy, we offered welcome and psychosocial support in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, as well as Italian language courses. In Milan, at our Hub ‘Spazio Indifesa’, we have provided food and basic items assistance, psychological support, Italian courses, and help with finding work. In the municipality of Besana in Brianza, we provided two flats for refugee women and children.
Subsequently, in Irpin — designated ‘heroic city’ for the 76% destruction suffered as a result of the conflict — we renovated four residential buildings with 450 flats, providing 1,192 people with safe, warm and dignified homes to return to.
In Zhytomyr and Chernihiv, we renovated eight schools attended by 4,600 students, which had been damaged by the conflict. In these locations, we have organised training courses in psychosocial care for children, and activities in art therapy, a psychological support technique that helps to express emotions and process trauma. We have also distributed food and essential goods (blankets, hygiene kits, etc.) to families in need.
Recently, we have placed a focus on educational and child protection interventions in the Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kherson regions where, together with our local partners, we are assisting children and parents/caregivers in highly vulnerable situations, exposed to the risk of violence and abuse.
In the Odessa Oblast, we implemented the project ‘Women: Future Without Limits‘ in cooperation with a consortium of three local Non-Governmental Organisations specialising in the protection and assistance of vulnerable women. We have offered psychosocial support and guidance to medical, psychiatric and legal services for girls and women who have experienced gender-based violence. We have supported safe havens and provided start-up grants to promote the economic independence of the beneficiaries, many of whom are refugees from temporarily occupied regions.
Among the main donors of the activities in Ukraine are the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Carrefour, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Foundation, the EOS Foundation, the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai, the Polish Medical Mission, the Lombardy Region, Terre des Hommes Nederland, the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund, UNICEF and UN Women.