The first Family Home has opened in Boryspil: The Olena Zelenska Foundation joined the implementation of the new state service

The Ukraine-first Family Home has opened in Boryspil, Kyiv region. This is a home where orphans and children deprived of parental care who still cannot find a family will be able to live in conditions as close to a family as possible.

The new service was presented with the participation of the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska; the Minister of Social Policy, Family, and Unity of Ukraine, Denys Uliutin; representatives of the State Children’s Service of Ukraine, the Coordination Center for Family Upbringing and Child Care Development, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, and the Boryspil community.

“The Family Home Social Service is one of the elements of a broader transformation of the child protection system that we are building in Ukraine today. We want the system to have various tools for the different life situations a child may face, and we want them all to work in the same direction—to preserve or restore the family environment and gradually move away from institutional care as the state’s standard response,” said Denys Uliutin, Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine.

The Family Home Social Service is being launched as a two-year state pilot in 12 regions of Ukraine. It should allow for testing a new model in practice and create a basis for its further scaling.

The Olena Zelenska Foundation has joined the implementation of the new service and funded the construction of the first two Family Homes in the Kyiv and Chernivtsi regions. The construction was made possible by the support of the Government of the United Arab Emirates.

“Ukraine has taken a European course toward abandoning traditional boarding schools. We are committed to ensuring that every child has a family. The Family Home does not replace the family. The family is still being sought. But this is no longer a boarding school. This is a home where every child should have enough attention and enough freedom,” the President’s wife noted.

After the presentation, Olena Zelenska visited the first Family Home in Boryspil, Kyiv region, and met with its residents—Liza, Nazarii, Dmytro, Mariia, and Mykhailo. Most of them spent a significant part of their childhoods in institutions. They talked about school, hobbies, and plans.

For the first Family Home, the Foundation used the already developed Room for Childhood project as a basis and adapted it to the new format and the needs of different children. The house is completely barrier-free and energy-efficient, equipped with furniture and necessary appliances, and includes personal spaces for children, common areas, and shelters.