Press release 04-09-2024
“BACK 2 SCHOOL… BUT NOT FOR THEM”
International Awareness Campaign for the Abducted Children of Ukraine
Today marks a significant milestone as Orphans Feeding Foundation (OFF) unveil the international “Back2School but not for them” campaign. It addresses the critical issue of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
OFF’s outdoor advertisements are now live in the UK and the Netherlands. Further to this, this initiative will soon extend across the US, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and beyond.
In partnership with JCDecaux, these billboards deliver an important message. As children worldwide return to school, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children remain forcibly separated from their homes, families, and education.
This campaign is a vital step in our mission to raise awareness globally about the pressing issue of child abduction. Additionally, it helps support our efforts in returning these children to Ukraine.
#Back2School
Urgency of the situation
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has been able to identify 19,546 forcibly transferred children. However, Russia claims to have “saved” 744,000 Ukrainian children from the war. Meanwhile, the Yale Research Lab estimates the number of abducted children to 200,000.
Although it is impossible to know exactly how many Ukrainian children have effectively been kidnapped, intelligence sources on the other side of the frontline confirm that the number is definitely in the tens of thousands at minimum.
The war has also resulted in the disappearance of 2,008 children, the deaths of 551, and injuries to another 1,388. A total of 388 have been repatriated, according to official data.
According to international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, such acts constitute genocide if done with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation or ethnic group. Therefore the United Nations has stated that the abductions of Ukrainian children constitute war crimes.
As OFF’s CEO Mariam Lambert said during the GLOBSEC conference in Prague on 31/08/2024: “Ukrainian children who are abducted exemplify the atrocities happening behind the scenes of this war. Children living under occupation are being tortured, intimidated, raped, and unlawfully displaced. Russians are using these children as weapons and bargaining chips to allow them to take over the whole country.”
Latest developments
The organisation runs deep investigations every day. Thanks to these, many new cases have been confirmed of children being held in Russian prisons. Consequently, their return is more critical as well as more difficult to realise.
More and more Ukrainian children are being forcibly displaced to Russia or Occupied Territories every day. The new trend OFF has observed is that many of them are put in prison under fake accusations such as assassination attempts or collaboration.
Younger children are put in juvenile prisons. And those in their teens are facing transfers to rougher adult prisons. There, their lives are much more in danger.
Also, with the incursion of the Ukrainian army in the Russian oblasts of Kursk and Belgorod, the organisation has seen a reluctance from the Russian authorities to comply with the legal documents required to release the children and return them to their families in Ukraine. This continuously makes OFF’s task even more difficult.
Mariam Lambert:“It is our moral duty to do everything we can, not only to support Ukraine but also to help these children and raise global awareness about their plight. Russia is turning these children into Russian military students. We need to act now as our biggest enemy is time. Every day, more children are kidnapped, more children are given up for adoption, and it becomes increasingly difficult to reunite them with their families in Ukraine.”
Results so far
Over the past year, OFF has built a network of partners and experts. Additionally the foundation set up a return process. It spans from the gathering of information about new missing children to their return and the medical and psychological aftercare.
The organisation has managed to reunite 48 children with their families. It is also actively working on the return of another 40 in the coming weeks.
Oleksandra Matviichuk (2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and OFF’s Goodwill Ambassador): “This is not a war between two countries – Ukraine versus Russia – but a conflict between two systems: democracy vs authoritarian regimes.”
Contact
For more information or an interview, please contact Mariam Lambert, CEO of Orphans Feeding Foundation, on +31 6 38 07 30 59 .
Find more information about our working methods and international press articles:
https://emilefoundation.org
