Musician and Save the Children ambassador Sophie Ellis-Bextor has visited Warsaw in Poland to meet with refugee children ahead of the three-year anniversary of the escalation of war in Ukraine.
The singer and mother-of-five, who kicks off a UK tour later this year, got stuck into a music therapy workshop with Ukrainian Roma children aged 3-12 years old, where they danced and played percussion instruments to traditional Polish songs. They also enjoyed an arts and crafts session where Sophie spent time getting to know the boys and girls whilst creating pictures using natural materials such as moss, dried fruits, spices, leaves and twigs.
These workshops are run with a local charity partner, the Foundation Towards Dialogue, that supports children from the Roma community, including thousands of Ukrainian Roma who have sought refuge in Poland. Because of the stigma attached to the Roma community, they often face discrimination and struggle accessing services, making them among the most vulnerable group of refugees seeking sanctuary in Poland.
Sophie then visited a library supported by Save the Children and its partners, to learn how secondary school students are building resilience in a new country and crucial life skills after their education was disrupted by the war.
The full-scale war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022, has disrupted the education of around 4 million children – the vast majority of school students across the country. Currently, about 600,000 students are now learning remotely across Ukraine due to the ongoing risk of attacks.
At the library, Sophie immersed herself into a workshop with a group of 15-18-year-olds from a local Ukrainian school which was set up in the outskirts of Warsaw by Ukrainian teachers who had fled when the war escalated in 2022. The ‘Healing and Education through the Arts’ (HEART) session provides psychosocial support to children who are trying to adapt and overcome the distressing situations they have experienced, including through peer-to-peer discussions and art sessions.
Here Sophie met with 17-year-old Jana from Kyiv in Ukraine, who spoke about her hopes and dreams.
Jana said, “I want to do something to help Ukraine – to change things. I’ve travelled a lot because of war, because I was trying to find a new home. The experience I have gained has been such a vital part of my life now – it has been defining. I want to use this experience to help rebuild Ukraine, to give it a bright future.”
Speaking about her visit, Sophie said: "It has been an absolute privilege to meet with some of the young people Save the Children supports here in Warsaw. The stories I’ve heard have been truly inspiring. Despite their unimaginable hardship – having everything they know and love taken away from them – it’s incredible just how resilient the children are.
“When talking to me about their lives here in Poland, they all spoke with smiles on their faces. They described how they’ve enjoyed reconnecting with their Ukrainian community as well as making new Polish friends. I was overwhelmed at how excited they were for their futures and just how many of them wanted to make a positive difference to the world around them.
“It is so easy to take school for granted but hearing the children speak about how these sessions provide them with hope and a sense of familiarity has been truly humbling. Equally, the teams who run the programmes and centres here have built such a safe space for this marginalised community. It’s no wonder the children love attending. They provide them with a sense of normality which will ultimately help deliver long-lasting impact.”
In Poland, thousands of Ukrainian children remain out of school. As of October 2024, approximately 151,000 school-aged Ukrainian refugee children were enrolled in Polish schools, however estimates suggest that between 21,000 and 143,000 may not be attending, despite a new Polish mandate making education compulsory for all Ukrainian children.
Celina Kretkowska-Adamowicz, acting Response Director at Save the Children in Poland said: “Education is a fundamental component of our humanitarian response, enabling us to deliver lasting change for children. We know conflicts push education systems to the brink, and this couldn’t be truer for the situation in Ukraine. We don’t want children’s experiences of war to define them. We want to give them hope for the future – and that’s exactly what education can do.”
February 24th 2025 will mark three years since the escalation of war in Ukraine which changed the lives of 7.5 million Ukrainian children forever. The UK has already provided over £477 million in humanitarian aid since 2022, but funding for front-line communities and critical winter support is running low.
The UK Government can unlock a further £2.3 billion from the sale of Chelsea Football Club, currently stuck in a UK bank account due to bureaucratic issues. This would fund humanitarian programmes for children and families impacted by the war in Ukraine, at no cost to the taxpayer.
By releasing this fund now – which is worth almost five times more than the UK’s total aid to Ukraine since 2022 – the UK Government could help deliver aid to 6.5 million more Ukrainian people across the region and here in the UK through food, cash transfers, mental health support, and education services.
