Safety Reflectors for Kids in Kyiv, Ukraine

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As the war rages on in Ukraine, my mom, who is child refugee from East Germany, and I have had many long conversations on the trauma of being a child in war times. Yesterday, we received a request from the Danish-Ukranian organization “Bevar Ukraine” to help provide safety reflectors for children in Kyiv. If you think it is is hard to see kids (and adults) in the dark here in North America, imagine what it is like where there is no power for street lights. So, of course we’ll send some safety reflectors for kids in Kyiv – 3,500 to be precise.

We are sending 3,500 safety reflectors to kids in Kyiv, among others, stars, soccer balls, baseballs and peace signs
We are sending 3,500 safety reflectors to kids in Kyiv, among others, stars, soccer balls, baseballs and peace signs

There are also several other factors which makes this such a heartbreaking situation:

  • Kids and teens are already traumatized by the war
  • Many of the kids living in Kiev today have been misplaced from other parts of the country and are not used to navigating the heavy traffic of a big city
  • The days are significantly shorter in Kyiv than in most places in the US outside of Alaska. Today sunrise in Kyiv is at 7:40 am and sunset at 4:41pm, which means some kids will go both to and from school in the dark, dawn or dusk.

We are helping as much as we can by sending 3,500 reflectors from our inventory. If you want us to send more, we need your help to pay for material. A donation of $5 will add 5 reflectors to our shipment. If you want to help more, just add it several times to the cart or go to your cart and change the quantity. You can combine it with an order of safety reflectors for yourself and your loved ones. We will close this fundraiser when we ship, which we hopefully will do by February 2nd, 2023. Please note that this fundraiser has been closed. Thank you to everyone who contributed!!!

Below is a translation of the letter from the Ukrainian National Police about the Safety light Project.

Kyiv, November 25, 2022
About involvement to cooperation
With this letter, I express my gratitude to the non-governmental organization “Futurelab Ukraine” and to the Department of Public Communications of the executive body of the Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration) for fruitful cooperation in 2021 in the “Safety Light” project, and invite you to join the implementation of new events in 2022-2023, aimed at preventing child injuries and creating a safe environment for children in the conditions of the war.
As of today, as a result of russian aggression, the energy infrastructure of the country, and, in particular, of the city of Kyiv, has undergone critical destruction. Strict energy-saving measures are being forcibly introduced in the city: large-scale power outages are carried out in residential buildings and infrastructure facilities, and street lighting is also turned off. All this has a significant impact on children’s safety. However, despite all the negative and dangerous factors that arose as a result of the war, the educational process continues in the city of Kyiv. Most amount of children attend educational institutions with various forms of education. In addition, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, many citizens (mainly women and children from the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine) suffered from enemy shelling and were forced to move to safer cities. To date, more than 207,000 internally displaced persons have been registered in the city of Kyiv, of which 36,200 are children. Today, it is these children who most often become victims of childhood injuries, since it is difficult for them to adapt to the conditions of a big city, where the intensity of traffic is much higher than in the settlements where they lived before being forced to move to the city of Kyiv.
In addition, cases of injuries to children who return home from school in the dark period of the day have become more frequent, because in the autumn and winter season, the light period is much shorter and road users become practically invisible, which leads to their injuries.
With the aim of reducing child injuries and ensuring a safe environment, the juvenile prevention police officers of the preventive activities department of the main department of the national police of the city of Kyiv constantly conduct educational, informational and educational activities aimed at forming a high level of legal awareness and correct value orientations. In addition, we constantly conduct information activities regarding the safe behavior of children on the street “Be noticeable”.
Considering the above, we offer the authors of the “Safety Light” project, the representatives of the NGO “Futurelab Ukraine” Tetiana Haliuk and Olena Medvyedyeva, as well as to the charity foundation “Bevar Ukraine” and to the Department of Public Communications of the executive body of the Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration) in 2022-2023, to join the work of juvenile prevention police in online and online meetings, as well as to find an opportunity to provide children with reflective elements (stickers, bracelets, vests, lanterns and other reflective elements) in the amount of about 50,000 pieces as soon as possible, depending on opportunities of partners. Reflective elements will be distributed to children by juvenile prevention officers during preventive and educational events and at informational meetings.
We hope on effective cooperation!
Sincerely,
Oleg ONYSHKO
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