Open Hearts
Support and protect families raising children and youth with disabilities in Ukraine
This page is part of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s record of past humanitarian work. Gifts made today support our Annual Fund.
The Open Hearts Association of Vinnytsia was founded in 2003 to work with people who have severe forms of disability, including physical, intellectual, and mental disabilities. Their mission is to support and protect families raising children and youth with disabilities and represent their interests in various institutions. Since the beginning of the war, they have shifted their focus to aid internally displaced persons (IDPs) with disabilities.
They have three shelters in the Vinnytsia Region, with both transit and permanent accommodation for IDPs. These shelters provide three meals a day, an accessible environment, medical care, personal hygiene products, and clothing. They have already provided shelter to 124displaced persons with disabilities, the elderly, and their family members.
The Goal
At Open Hearts, the need far outweighs their capacity. They have vision and drive, but they need financial assistance. The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and PASS (a strategic consultancy dedicated to saving lives and alleviating suffering) have partnered to help Open Hearts meet their financial goals. Since 2014, PASS has served communities in the most fragile places around the world. They work with local people to build healthy, resilient, and self-reliant communities.
The first step of the project is to build an elevator and a stairwell to the second floor of their building, which is being renovated to add capacity to the shelter. This part of the building will be home to the project "We are returning home, to Ukraine." Open Hearts will provide temporary accommodation and care for persons with severe forms of disability, including children, young people, and the elderly, who need constant external assistance.While they are at Open Hearts, their families will return to their former places of residence to ensure everything is still accessible.
Future Goals
· A car with a chairlift
· Autonomous power supply for the shelters
· Generators for backup power
· Simulator stairs and ramps for wheel chair training
· Mobile home for evacuations
· Modular systems to convert rooms into classrooms
· Storage systems for rehabilitation equipment
People with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable categories of victims of this terrible war waged by Russia in Ukraine.
Support the Annual Fund
Your gift to the Annual Fund:
- Supports the Center for Reuniting Families of Ukraine and the Center for Ukraine’s Sovereign Recovery we are building
- Sustains the FOUN advocacy that keeps Ukraine issues in front of policymakers
- Provides targeted humanitarian assistance
- Gives the Foundation the flexibility to respond where the need is greatest as the humanitarian crisis evolves