Evaluation of the Provision of Psychosocial Support and Protective Services through Child and Youth Friendly Spaces and Community Protection Centers in Eastern Ukraine

The ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which is entering its sixth year during the time of this evaluation, has resulted in 3.5 million people including 700,000 children remaining in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Over 1.5 million Ukrainians are registered as IDPs including almost a quarter of a million children. Nearly half of these children are hosted in communities in government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and a large in the adjacent oblasts of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya. The conflict has impacted and is continuing to impact children physically, psychologically, and socially. The Psychosocial Support Programme was developed and implemented in response to the emerging needs of children and their families. UNICEF Ukraine has been working through its implementing partners to put in place a gender- and age-appropriate psychosocial support response targeting children and their families in host communities in order to strengthen their resilience.