02 Jul Hope under fire: supporting a Ukrainian orphanage during the war
There are moments that don’t ask for reflection. They only ask you to act.
For Olga Leventis, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine was one of them. Friends and family were there. The distance was total. The helplessness, almost unbearable. “There was no time to think,” she reflects. “Only to act.”
Olga grew up in Ukraine knowing, from an early age, that big dreams and real possibilities don’t always travel together. Long before Uprising existed, she was already showing up for those who needed it most — volunteering at orphanages, quietly and consistently, without the architecture of a foundation to support her. It was personal. It was instinct. It was, in many ways, the beginning of everything Uprising stands for.
When the war escalated, that instinct became urgent.
When Help Is Chaotic Without Structure
The first days of conflict revealed something Olga has never forgotten: that goodwill alone isn’t enough. Aid poured in from across the world, but without continuity, without accountability, without presence, it often dissolved before it reached the people who needed it most. Money donated to intermediaries. Supplies that never arrived. Promises that faded.
“I saw how people mobilised quickly,” she says, “but also how help can be chaotic without structure.”
That clarity — that real impact requires presence, continuity, and accountability — shaped everything Uprising did in response. Not a one-off donation. Not a social media campaign. A direct, sustained commitment to one orphanage in western Ukraine, through the darkest months of the conflict.
What Uprising Did
When the orphanage reached out, Uprising showed up. Emergency supplies. Heaters for the winter months. Consistent food deliveries. Trauma-informed care for children who had already lived through more than any child should.
These weren’t symbolic gestures. They were the difference between children going cold and children staying warm. Between trauma left to fester and children being given the tools to begin to process what they had witnessed.
“Sometimes when you donate to an orphanage, you don’t really know where the donation goes or whether it is well used,” says Olga. “We made sure it arrived at the right places.”
That hands-on accountability — knowing the people, knowing the institution, staying connected — is what separates Uprising’s approach from charity at a distance. It is the difference between giving and truly being present.
Dignity Doesn’t Pause During Conflict
What this mission reminded the Foundation — and what Olga has always believed — is that the children caught in the margins of conflict haven’t chosen their circumstances. They haven’t chosen the country they were born in, the timing of their birth, or the adults who failed to protect them. What they deserve, regardless, is dignity. Consistency. Care that doesn’t disappear when the news cycle moves on.
“Growing up in Ukraine made me understand that you can have big dreams, but you don’t always have the means,” says Olga. “That is something I carry into everything we do.”
This mission is now closed. The immediate crisis it responded to has passed, at least in the terms we were able to address. But the children remain. The orphanage remains. And Uprising’s belief — that every child deserves the conditions to rise — remains unchanged.
What It Means for Everything Else We Do
Ukraine didn’t create Uprising’s philosophy. But it sharpened it.
It confirmed that the most meaningful work is done close-up, with real people, over real time. That transformation — whether it happens in a Ukrainian orphanage during wartime or on the Atlantic at Nazaré — begins with someone deciding to show up when it would have been easier not to.
That is what Uprising was built for. And it is what we will keep doing, wherever the need calls us next.
Uprising Foundation empowers children, supports young talents, and protects nature through action that builds futures. To learn about our current and upcoming projects, visit our newsroom.
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