Dogs, Scouts and winter cash: our Ukraine consortium in 2024
ALPS Resilience Ukraine has led a consortium through the busiest year of our Ukraine programme. With the Ukrainian Deminers Association and the National Organisation of Scouts of Ukraine, we held a grant from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund of just under one million US dollars. Four activities ran in parallel, mostly in rural areas outside the regional city centres, with sites chosen together with local state administrations.
Our canine-assisted therapy team, four handlers with five trained dogs and a psychologist, ran group sessions in children's institutions, schools and community centres. Children learned how to approach and care for the dogs, from feeding to leash-walking, and each session was recorded in a written protocol with the psychologist's observations. A guardian or a representative of the host institution was present throughout. So far this year the team has worked at 67 therapy points in 47 settlements across three regions, and more than 2,900 children and young people have taken part.
With the National Organisation of Scouts of Ukraine we supported child-friendly spaces in 15 towns and villages. Eighty adults from these communities completed a two-stage training course in the Scout Method, and in spring and summer the communities held 30 recreational and educational events attended by more than 5,000 children. More than 350 children have since joined the Scouts' long-term programme, which the Scouts will continue beyond the grant. The Ukrainian Deminers Association delivered explosive ordnance risk education and support to mine victims.
Before winter we paid cash assistance to more than 600 households with children in four regions, three of them bordering Russia. Eligible families were identified using government data and checked against the UN Cash Working Group's deduplication system, so nobody was paid twice. The consortium completes its work this year. Our Ukrainian partners carried much of the load, and we are grateful to them.
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