The Children’s Resilience Fund: Supporting
Ukrainian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Crown Agents International Development (CAID) has scaled up efforts to respond to the fast-changing humanitarian needs in the country.
Understanding the value of localising the response, CAID is supporting Ukrainian civil society organisations (CSOs) to efficiently respond to and meet the needs of their communities. We are doing so by scaling up technical and financial assistance and have awarded 120 grants to CSOs since the invasion. We have supported activities such as:
- rehabilitating healthcare facilities
- refurbishing school air raid shelters
- evacuations and
- the documentation of war crimes.
In July 2023, CAID launched its latest funding initiative – the Ukraine Children’s Resilience Fund, which aims to protect and assist children impacted by the ongoing war.
The Children’s Resilience Grant has disbursed £600,000 in the first round to support 11 CSOs implement projects that build the resilience of children to withstand the effects of conflict through supportive, localised, and technical child protection expertise.
While each CSO’s approach differs, they all aim to reach the most vulnerable communities through prioritising children at risk, by building the psychological and mental health of children.
The main activities that arise from the projects include:
- Mental health and psychosocial support for Internally Displaced Children (IDCs) through formal and informal education initiatives;
- Focusing on marginalised individuals such as the Roma community and children with disabilities;
- Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for children from conflict-affected areas;
- Children living in family-type orphanages;
- Internet safety programmes for parents, caregivers and children on misinformation campaigns.
However, our assistance does not end with the disbursal of grants. Ahead of project implementation, CAID will conduct technical and capacity strengthening workshops with each organisation, delivering assistance in child protection and MHPSS, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), safeguarding, finance management and reporting and strategic programming.
This will ensure that beyond the six-month project implementation period, each CSO will be better equipped with enhanced organisational policies and practices regarding child protection, safeguarding, GESI and administrative procedures.
If CSOs need more robust policies relating to child protection and safeguarding, we provide industry leading advisors that support their development and/or rolling out of best practice and policies in line with our own Standard Operating Procedures. This includes enhanced financial management and reporting, risk management and compliance training, as well as conflict-sensitive and inclusive approaches to programming.
If you are interested in donating to the Children’s Resilience Fund, please contact Adam Johnson, Partnerships Director, at adam.johnson@crownagents.co.uk or by telephone on +44 (0) 7416 440 578.
If you are a Ukrainian-registered CSO and are interested in becoming a Project Partner of the Children’s Resilience Fund, please contact childrensresiliencefund@caiduk.org.