One of the stories – The Orphanage for Ukrainian Children in Slavina

The war in Ukraine tells endless stories. One of them – the story of the Regional orphanage No. 2 in Lugansk – has particularly touched the Slovenian public.

In 2014, the orphanage was caught up in the violence when separatist authorities tried to deport the whole institution – orphans and part of the staff – to Russia. The return of the children to their homeland was made possible only becuse of the determination and courage of Dr Kateryna Dontsova, head of the orphanage. The orphanage was reestablished in Severodonetsk where it was given a new lease of life. However, at the beginning of the Russian aggression in February 2022, it had to be relocated overnight to Lvov in western Ukraine, where the situation was very severe due to frequent missile attacks.

Due to the humanitarian campaign initiated by the Association of Friends of Youth Ljubljana Moste - Polje, POP TV, and the cooperation among the Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants, the Ukrainian authorities, and the Embassy of Ukraine to the Republic of Slovenia, the orphanage was relocated to Slovenia at the beginning of May 2022. The relocation was made possible thanks to the efforts of the Civil Protection, the Municipality of Postojna, the Secondary Vocational Forestry, Wood Technology and Nursing School Postojna, and most importantly the Slavina Local Community, which offered the village cultural centre to comfortably accommodate twenty Ukrainian orphans, aged between one and six at the time. The cultural centre is situated just five kilometres from the Park of Military History. In addition to the children, some of the orphanage’s staff also relocated to Slovenia. This included eight nurses and nannies, as well as three doctors.