During her visit to the Kingdom of Denmark, the First Lady of Ukraine and the team of the Olena Zelenska Foundation met with the representatives of Danish businesses and charitable organizations.
"The goal of my Foundation is to restore and improve the lives of people in Ukraine at this very moment. It's a difficult task, but fortunately we are not alone. Since its inception, the Foundation has brought together philanthropists from 25 countries. I am glad that we already have representatives of Danish business among our partners, and thanks to them we have managed to implement several important initiatives. I believe that after this meeting, the circle of Danish friends of Ukraine and the Foundation will grow," she said.
Olena Zelenska invited the partners to join two other projects of the Foundation. One of them is the "Address of Childhood" project. It is the construction of housing for large foster families. According to her, more than 900 children were adopted in Ukraine last year, while about 2,500 Ukrainians were trained and are now ready to become foster parents, and 518 of them have already created large foster families.
"But the most important thing these families need is a home to live in. And supporting large foster families is exactly what the Foundation's project, symbolically called 'Address of Childhood', is aimed at," the First Lady said.
She noted that at least 80 such families were left homeless because of the Russian invasion. The Foundation is building new homes for them as a part of the project.
"We have already provided new, specially built and furnished homes for six of these families. Another eight will receive their keys by the end of May. So, the first wave of this project is coming to an end. But there are still more than 60 families in need of housing," Olena Zelenska said.
The second urgent project of the Foundation is the reconstruction of the children's creative and sports hub in Borodyanka.
"This heroic town was severely damaged during the 38-day occupation. Now 25 thousand people live in Borodyanka and its municipality. The town is coming back to life. But in the first days of the invasion, the Russians destroyed the local children's hub, which had a capacity of two thousand children. All 52 teachers of the center continue to teach children. They work in schools, kindergartens, and private institutions that remained intact. But all of them are waiting for the opportunity to gather again under the roof of the children's hub," the President's wife noted.
Danish philanthropists are already helping to rebuild the hospital in Izyum. They have also helped to organize vacations for more than 1,400 kids from large foster families and to provide Christmas gifts to about 13,000 children.
