Urgent investment in critical services and systems for children is vital to protecting and building the country’s future.
Around 70 per cent of children in Ukraine – or 3.5 million – now lack access to basic goods and services, including adequate food or shelter, according to new data published by UNICEF. This proportion of children experiencing ‘material deprivation’ increased from some 18 per cent in 2021, prior to the escalation of the war in February 2022.
Material deprivation is a stark indicator of poverty and includes a lack of access to nutritious food, appropriate clothing, heating at home, and educational materials, among other essentials. It deprives children of a minimum standard of living and affects their long-term development, education, health, and future opportunities.
“The war in Ukraine continues to devastate the country’s children. Investing in them and the services they rely on, is the best way to secure Ukraine’s future,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell.
Some 2,786 children have been killed or maimed since February 2022. A third of Ukraine’s children live in homes without functioning water supply and sewage and nearly half of children lack access to an area to play at home or outside. Continued and relentless attacks on critical water, sanitation, and energy infrastructure, children’s homes, schools and healthcare facilities, combined with rising poverty, have caused an increase in material deprivation.
Ukraine is also facing serious demographic challenges, with a 35 per cent birthrate decline and millions of women and children having fled the country.
Continuous access to quality and inclusive social services, education and health care for all children and their families is essential, especially for children living near the frontlines, children with disabilities, those in institutions and foster families, and children displaced from their homes.
“The opportunity to protect and nurture Ukraine’s children and young people – from the early years through adolescence – is now. The country’s future dep
