May 5, 2025
News
Before the Russians invaded Ukraine and occupied her city of Enerhodar, Olesia worked at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. She fled with her daughter and parents and started a new life in Transcarpathia. In the small kitchen of her rented apartment, Olesia has set up a workshop where she designs and prints educational materials for children. Thanks to a grant from Caritas Czech Republic, she took an illustration course and is able to create characters and stories that teach children about personal safety.
Olesia’s family escaped in the last evacuation convoy
Olesia is from Enerhodar, a nuclear power plant satellite city. She is a professional analytical engineer and co-founder of an NGO that helped maintain public order in Enerhodar. Olesia used to dream of being a police officer and even passed the selection process for the police analytical department. However, she had to give up her career in law enforcement to take care of her young daughter Alice, whom she is raising on her own.
When Russian troops attacked the city of Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on a March night in 2022, Olesia saw enemy tanks shelling Europe's largest nuclear power plant and its defenders from the windows of her flat.
“My window offers a panoramic view of the plant. The Russians were shooting at its buildings at close range before my eyes. The whole world saw this footage from the security cameras later,” Olesia recalls.
She persuaded her parents to evacuate using the “green corridor”. At the time, Olesia did not know that the convoy in which her car was leaving Enerhodar would be the last opportunity to escape.
“We were leaving in the last evacuation convoy with my daughter, my parents, cat, and dog. The very next day, the occupiers blew up the bridge on the way out of the city,” says Olesia.
Teaching safety through play
After four days on the road, the family finally reached Mukachevo in western Ukraine, where they took refuge with relatives. On the way from occupied Enerhodar, Olesia saw charred cars and unexploded shells... Since then, she has been thinking that even after the victory, war “finds” will pose a danger to Ukrainian children for a long time.
Together with her 9-year-old daughter, Olesia researched educational materials from various organisations and foundations on mine and personal safety for children. She found that most of them lacked the interactivity to hold her daughter's and her friends’ attention.
This gave rise to the idea of game books, which help children learn to find help and the right solutions by playing different emergencies. Thanks to a grant from Caritas Czech Republic, Olesia took an iPad illustration course and started designing her first books.
“Now I can create my design and characters. Playing with them, children will learn the numbers of their parents and emergency services, as well as the rules of conduct in situations threatening health and life - from household fires to explosive findings and meeting with strangers,” Olesia says.
She has set up a mini-print studio in her kitchen and is already making some games to order. Olesia is also considering holding book-making workshops for children.
“I want to show children that there is always help and that there are no hopeless situations. You just need to know how to act in each of them. If a child learns this through play, he or she grows up self-sufficient and confident,” Olesia is convinced.
Caritas Czech Republic in Ukraine
Caritas Czech Republic has been helping people in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. In addition to providing much-needed humanitarian aid, we provide shelter to internally displaced people in modular houses in western Ukraine. We are also improving living conditions in dormitories.
In western Ukraine, we support Ukrainians who have decided to stand on their own feet after evacuating from the war zone. Through mini-grants, we assist the restoration of livelihoods for people in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and the Transcarpathian region.
In eastern Ukraine, we improve the accessibility and quality of rehabilitation and reproductive medicine by modernising hospitals and educating staff.
Since 2025, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, we have been involved in setting up a network of Mental Health Centres in 4 regions: Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Transcarpathia. In addition, Caritas Czech Republic supports Ukrainian educational institutions near the frontline by creating safe educational spaces, providing equipment, and funding psychological consultations and additional classes to help children catch up on their educational gaps.
In southern Ukraine, we are now working with partners to restore water supply in affected areas and set up mobile medical centres.
