A Simple Wish, but a Great One:
Today is a special day.
For the first time, I want to share with you a cause that remained quiet for many years.
For a long time, I believed that true charity should be quiet—that the right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. But now I understand that silence can sometimes mean a lost opportunity: an opportunity to help even more people.
Today, April 17, marks the birthday of one of the most important projects of my life—the “Growth in the Family” Charitable Foundation.
I remember very clearly how it all began.
Long before the official launch, I had spent years helping children—children’s homes, family-based care, small group homes, children with disabilities, and families facing difficult circumstances. Together with Yevhen, the Foundation’s managing partner and CEO, we looked for a place where our support would not simply be useful, but essential. A place where we could offer more than money, and where there was no line of people already waiting to help.
I suggested adding another group to our focus: older people. Many organizations support children, while pensioners are often overlooked.
Some time later, Yevhen returned with an idea that touched me deeply:
“What if we supported families where grandmothers and/or grandfathers are raising grandchildren who have lost their parents?”
I felt both joy and sadness. I was glad because helping one family would allow us to support both a child and an older person at the same time. It created a multiplier effect of kindness and was exactly what I had been looking for.
I was saddened to learn that there are more than 5,000 such families in Ukraine, and very often they are entirely on their own. They receive little recognition, few benefits, and limited attention. Social services may visit, calculate a grandmother’s pension and the cost of medicine, utilities, and food, and conclude that she cannot afford to raise the child.
The child is then taken away to a shelter. Yet in that modest apartment or aging house, there is love. There is the strongest bond in the world—a loved one close by. Grandmothers are prepared to give everything rather than give up the child.
We realized that providing these families with a basic monthly food package could resolve the issue. The child could remain with the family.
That is how the “Growth in the Family” Foundation was established on April 17, 2020.
Our Mission Is to Keep Children in Their Families
No grandmother should have to send a grandchild to an institution because of financial hardship. Love deserves a chance. Every child should know that family is more than blood—it is a source of strength.
It Is a Very Simple Wish, but Also a Great One
Today, we systematically support more than 1,000 families across ten regions of Ukraine. That means 1,500 children remain at home with their grandparents. These are more than numbers. They are a thousand individual stories where hope has emerged—families who, thank God, know they are not alone. We will continue along this path, because changing the world is not about grand words. It is about a choice made every day, consciously: to remain by someone’s side.
I would especially like to thank Yevhen, the Foundation’s managing partner and CEO.
And I thank everyone who stands with us: every team member, donor, partner, and every person who supports us, tells our story, and shares it with others.
Your trust is what drives us.