Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, more than 1.5 million people have escaped Ukraine, according to data by the UN Refugee Agency. Many of these refugees are mothers with children.
With this in mind, there are fellow mothers from Poland who’re trying to help.
One viral photo shows fully-equipped baby strollers waiting for the moms from Ukraine at one train station at the border in Medyka, Poland.
Solidarity of Polish Moms & Dramatic Stories of Ukrainian Moms
The viral photo was taken by Francesco Malavolta, a photographer.
Malavolta explains that what amazed him before taking the photo was the lack of people around whereas two meters away, there were miles of people lined up. It seemed unreal, he explained.
He thought of both women: the solidarity of the Polish moms who left these strollers here and the sad and dramatic stories of moms escaping the war.
Malavolta also took photos of strollers at the border of Ukraine and Slovakia. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 had to remain and fight in Ukraine due to the martial law order from the government of Ukraine.
The moms and kids are fleeing the country and this has caught the attention of the whole world.
In Medyka, a village at the border of southeastern Poland, mothers and their babies traveled for days to escape from Ukraine and were greeted with supplies that contained everything they needed, from snowsuits to diapers.
The Humanitarian Crisis Is Growing, Experts Say
The increase of the humanitarian crisis shows that there are plenty of kids that remain in Ukraine without guardians with whom they can flee.
Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, around 100,000 kids there grew up in institutions, according to statistics.
It’s worrisome that plenty of these institutions are in hot locations and many of these kids in the institutions are with disabilities. Moreover, the institutions are being evacuated without adequate monitoring of the situation of the kids there, claims the UNICEF.
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