Olena Zelenska Foundation provides a minivan to a large foster family from the Orikhiv community

The Olena Zelenska Foundation has provided a nine-seater minivan to a large foster family from the Orikhiv community in the Zaporizhzhia region. The vehicle was sent from Kyiv to Zaporizhzhia, where the family currently lives.

During Russia’s full-scale invasion, the family of Olena Aliieva was forced to leave their home in Orikhiv. The family relocated to Zaporizhzhia, while their house in their hometown was damaged. The family is currently raising eight children — orphans and children deprived of parental care.

The Aliieva family’s family-type children’s home was established in 2019. Olena has many years of experience raising children — even before establishing the family-type children’s home, the family had the status of a foster family. During martial law, the family welcomed five more children into their home.

The children attend school and have various interests — including sports, music, and drawing.

In 2024, the Olena Zelenska Foundation had already supported the family by providing furniture and household appliances after they moved into their new home in Zaporizhzhia.

The minivan will help the family address transportation needs — ensuring that the children can get to school, extracurricular activities, sports training, and medical facilities.

“Transportation is a daily necessity for large foster families. When there are many children in a family, the ability to travel together to school, extracurricular activities, or a doctor becomes an important part of everyday life. That is why supporting such families is one of the Foundation’s priority areas,” said Viktoriia Romanova, Director of the Olena Zelenska Foundation.

The Foundation pays special attention to supporting family-based care and creating conditions for children’s development. We help families receive exactly the support they need. Recently, the Foundation also provided four nine-seater MAN minivans to educational institutions in mountainous communities of the Zakarpattia region to ensure transportation for children to school.

The transfer of the vehicle was made possible thanks to the support of partners NGO Fritt Ukraina, who purchased a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2026 in Norway and arranged its delivery to Ukraine.

The Olena Zelenska Foundation continues its work to support family-based care and create conditions in which children can grow, learn, and develop.