the war in ukraine has forced millions
of children to evacuate unicef says
about five million kids have fled so far
that's more than two-thirds of ukraine's
children
but what about the ones who can't leave
who's watching out for them
this invasion has left many children
unaccompanied without parents or
guardians some were orphans before
russia attacked
according to unicef unaccompanied minors
are at a higher risk of violence
exploitation and trafficking and for
those with disabilities the challenges
are even greater
the non-profit group abundance
international supports more than a dozen
ukrainian orphanages during this war
it's been working to feed and care for
orphaned children throughout the country
joining us now is mark davis founding
director of abundance international and
he's joined by his wife anna davis who
is also with the organization welcome to
the program good to have you both with
us
thank you for having us thank you very
much
mark can i start by just asking you
you're here in the u.s right now in
nevada but you've been in ukraine for a
good portion of this war describe some
of the things that orphans are dealing
with now maybe things that are different
or harder than they were even before the
war started
correct we've been dealing with
supporting orphans for 10 years and i
lived there most of the time and i've
been there through since day one of the
war and the challenges immediately came
to us both from supplies from dealing
with panicked children for them having
to rush downstairs to bomb shelters
every time us
an air raid siren would go off three
four times a day and the fear in these
kids and every single orphan is facing
different challenges
regarding loss of food you can see we've
had to resupply food some weren't
getting medical
new things they need for special needs
kids these aren't cough syrups these are
very specialized medicines
and the gaps have been everywhere we
keep trying to expand we're doing to
reach more and at abundance
international.org the donations of all
you people have helped make this happen
you can see it right there what we're
doing to keep these kids taken care of
who can't leave the country 85 percent
of these orphans are not able to or
because of physical needs or the
willingness or ability to get out of the
country because there's a big legal
challenge as well to transport the
liability of an orphan child to somebody
else the other side is going to
medically take care of them legally take
care of them facilities finances nursing
care
this isn't like putting kids in the
backyard station wagon and driving
across the border
it seems like a quite herculean task as
you describe it mark but anna i also
kind of wonder about the task inside
ukraine i mean i can only imagine what
it's like anna for the two of you to
help coordinate food supplies and
logistics with everything that's going
on on the ground and make sure that
everything gets to where it's supposed
to be
i'm born and raised from make alive and
right now actually my family evacuated
like 10 hours ago because it's become
incredibly dangerous for them but we
have people volunteers who are still in
uh
different cities who willing to help
kids if even with danger they want to
stay behind and they want to help them
so while we're here we contacted them
and they're helping us to do this
you said your family evacuated today
anna they they just about
they just evacuated today like at 9 00
am my time because i was begging them to
leave as they refused but about 10 days
ago there was a missile dropped in my
neighbor's backyard which is extremely
close to my house and
luckily did not explode
and my family is still alive
and past three to four days it's been
extremely dangerous and make a life
right now so they decide to finally to
leave
and i'm super grateful they're right now
in chinese which is close to slovakia
whereas i don't have too many bombings
well mark in light of that first of all
and i'm glad your family was able to to
get moving i hope that they have safe
travels as they continue to to
try to stay safe from all of this but
mark in light of all that
i wonder how you deal with taking care
of staff on the ground i understand that
you lost contact with an orphanage
director in kerasan since this war began
yeah i'm i'm going back next week
because there's so much to do but here's
the real
heartbreaking trauma of this
three four of the orphanages we care for
now are in the kirsan district which is
now in russian control the main one we
have loved and cared for for over six
years did all of the roof the heating
brought food loved these kids held them
in our hands
they disappeared and the last we heard
from them is march 8th and this is 58
children a third of which are special
needs and
we just all we hear is rumors that the
russians are taking these kids and we
have no other evidence to support
anything else because we're still in
contact with the other three orphanages
in the kirsten district and helping them
get supplies even behind enemy lines so
these are 58 kids we we really are
just fearfully concerned that they're
already in russia somewhere
if we could put that map back up again i
know tonight is turning into a bit of a
geography lesson but just to be clear
about what we're looking at you see down
there in the bottom in the south mikolai
of and kerasand very close to one
another they kind of sit where the black
sea runs into the de nipro gulf and then
part of the denipro river that flows
into the black sea so we're talking
about generally that same region where
as we mentioned earlier tonight the
ukrainian government says that it
attacked a russian ship and forced its
evacuation the russian government says
ammunition on board caught fire the
ukrainians are claiming uh
responsibility for having attacked that
ship anna let me ask you in terms of
children with disabilities orphans who
have
extra special needs on top of dealing
with everything
in this war
how are you taking care of them
especially since
you know some of them can evacuate but
if they had to move depending on what
their special needs are that could make
it vastly more difficult
yes and we're really grateful because
all the nannies who were taking your
kids before the war they actually stayed
behind and none of them not leave them
and they stayed with them and they
provide the need for those kids
and it's been amazing because they have
their own families but they still stand
with those kids and mark this uh was
there recently um so
he saw how kids were in the basements
and in the places where
you just saved because my whole family
was staying this whole
whole this time in the basement very
very tiny basement what we have in our
house three big adult people so these
little kids it just it's heartbreaking
to see but luckily because of this
nannies they keep in good spirit and um
other people volunteers coming and
helping them and some some kids are very
hard to move and you have to have
special vehicles for those and some some
places are very dangerous to move to so
they have to wait and see when they come
and can go to different cities
anna talk to me a bit more about those
nannies and the kinds of things that
they do to just
keep the kids spirits up keep them from
getting
you know depressed or scared like that
that's got to be tough work too just
allowing children
to have some
bit of their childhood in the middle of
a war
our first orphanage where we started
working with it was in my hometown
nikolaj because that's where i grew up
and that's where we started traveling
and helping we decided you know what
we're here we're grateful um i become
american citizens so i can help them a
little just you know hundred dollars can
help there so far
and um usually like with the the
original house where we helped they have
like uh 220 staff
who help uh
kids all the time and they're they're
all still there and it's just amazing
how
i i cannot describe how happy i am that
they did not leave the kids behind to
help their own families and they're
traveling with those kids because
everyone have families we have friends
right now who cannot leave that city
because they don't want to leave grandma
mom behind and you don't understand
because many people who are leaving it's
very um hard to leave because you have
someone behind and you don't know if
they're going to survive or not so i'm
um right now as you move to a different
city and they're safe there um the city
who are have less bombings and less
danger they keep taking everyone else
who want to help who needs help yeah
you know what i'd like you to go i know
mark you've mentioned your your website
abundanceinternational.org obviously we
leave it to people to do their own
research in terms of whether they choose
to donate or not but what are the the
biggest needs your organization has
right now and are you coordinating at
all with the ukrainian government to
meet those needs or are you
a
more independent non-profit organization
before we go what are the biggest needs
thank you absolutely we are an
independent one but we have if you go to
the home page at abundance
international.org you see we got the
endorsement and thanks from a
parliamentary member of the ukrainian
government for the work we're doing and
we're actually i'm going back next week
to set up a distribution center so we
can take more of the humanitarian aid
that's coming in and organize and
structure our delivery systems
independently each of these orphanages
because i don't see another organization
taking care of the ones who are stuck
who are in the country to make sure that
they get what they need and what we're
also doing to try to help these
orphanages that are behind enemy lines
no one else is doing and god thank god
for the provision the prayer of people
for the help of networks like you
getting the word out to let people know
that the work we're doing is good work
and we're taking care of these kids and
god bless what ana said about these
nannies these are the front care workers
although they're personally terrified
their mothering heart keeps issuing calm
to these children saying it'll be okay
honey it'll be okay
we love them with our hearts and um this
is deep in our dna not only we've been
here for a decade already we'll be here
long after this is done and continue to
care for these kids because 85 of these
orphans are not going to be getting out
of the country they're still going to be
there and you have to understand the
benefits of being private organizations
we can buy expensive medicine um and
whatever they require because sometimes
what they really need because sometimes
government can only allow a special
budget for those kids and sometimes they
need more it's a more neat expensive one
and we can provide it
anna and mark davis of abundance
international again the site is
abundance international.org of course do
your own research make your own decision
as to whether or not you choose to
support it but i appreciate you two
coming on and tell the story and i'm so
glad that your family was able to
evacuate to some place safer
yeah safe travels to them and to the two
of you thank you both very much thank
you so much
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