All over the world – from Syria to Yemen to Nigeria to Afghanistan – we see children caught up in conflicts not of their making. Responding to the needs of the hungry, injured, traumatised or exploited children that are war’s hallmark is a skill I desperately wish Save the Children had never had to develop but now, more than a century after our founding, here we are, back at our beginnings, helping refugee children in Europe.

Save the Children has been working inside Ukraine since 2014. While our programming is suspended due to the conflict, some of our partners are still operating where they can. Meanwhile our teams are also responding across Lithuania and Romania and scaling up with our partners in Poland.

We are providing cash, blankets, toys, mental health support, food and water, hygiene kits and winter clothing and working with our allies across the Disasters Emergency Committee. We have been inundated by offers of support, every single one of them appreciated. It’s important to remember that the single most effective and efficient way to donate is to give money (rather than goods) to an established humanitarian organisation. Fast and flexible resources are at a premium in an emergency—please mobilise your foundations, companies and networks so that we can shift staff and supplies where they are needed most.

We know too that children far from Ukraine are terrified by what they are seeing on television—they can imagine what it must be like to be safe in school one week and then sitting on the floor of a gym in a different country wondering where your father is the next. We have prepared this resource to help you navigate conversations about war with children and of course we continue to work with families having a tough time here in the UK who are facing spiralling bills.

Read the full article about supporting children in Ukraine by Kirsty McNeill at Think NPC.