8L Kids Among 20L Fleeing Ukraine: Org
Kyiv, March 9: Save The Children organisation has said an estimated 8,00,000 children are among the 20 lakh people who have fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion began on February 24. Many of them are making the trip on their own, and arriving unaccompanied, the agency has said. “Parents are resorting to the most desperate, heart-breaking measures to protect their children. This includes sending their children away with neighbours and friends, to seek safety outside of Ukraine, while they stay home to protect their homes,” said Irina Saghoyan from the NGO.
On Tuesday the news of 11-year-old Hassan, who left his home in Zaporizhzhia on his own because his mother could not leave his grandmother was leading in headlines across the world. He arrived safely in Slovakia, after a 1,200km train journey, carrying just two small bags, his passport, and his relatives’ phone number written on his hand.
More than half of the refugees leaving Ukraine are going to Poland, and then Hungary and Slovakia, the BBC said. Mothers in Poland left strollers for Ukrainian mothers crossing the border and a photograph was the first to bring it to everyone’s notice. The now-viral photo showed a line of fully-equipped strollers waiting for Ukrainian mothers at a train station at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. The strollers were placed there by Polish mothers, according to Francesco Malavolta, the photographer who captured the photo. “The thing that struck me before taking the photo was the absence of people around while two meters away there were miles of people. It seemed surreal,” Malavolta told the ABC News then. “I thought of them both, about the solidarity of those who brought the strollers and the dramatic stories of mothers fleeing the war.”
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