This week, three large foster families in the Dnipro and Cherkasy regions received new homes built as part of the Olena Zelenska Foundation’s Room for Childhood project. The First Lady of Ukraine announced this.
The President’s wife visited one of them – the Kolesnikov family – on the day they moved to Zolotonosha. Denys and Darya became foster parents back in 2019. The family now has the status of a family-type children’s home. The couple are raising eight children.
The Kolesnikovs’ new home is barrier-free, energy-efficient, has a shelter, and is fully furnished and equipped with the necessary household appliances.
“When we launched the Room for Childhood project, our primary goal was to help large foster families who had lost their homes because of the war or had been forced to leave them. Over time, we expanded the project to also support families willing to take in more children but lacking adequate housing to do so. Today, Room for Childhood helps both those who need a new home and those for whom it will become an opportunity to expand their family. After all, our task is not only to support large foster families, but also to create conditions for more children to grow up in a family,” the President’s wife noted.
Two more large foster families moved into new homes in the Dnipro region this week.
Olha Shyoshvili and Kostiantyn Kott are raising six children. Their previous home no longer had enough space for their large family. Now they have a new home equipped to meet the needs of the entire family.
Svitlana and Leonid Kondratiuk became foster parents in 2023. Later, the couple became parents-educators so they could take in more children. They are now raising four children. Their previous home was small, leaving them unable to expand their family.
The Foundation built the homes for both families in the Dnipro region in partnership with the A. P. Moller Relief Foundation.
The home in the Cherkasy region was built with the support of the Government of the United Arab Emirates – one of the first partners of the Room for Childhood project. In total, the UAE has supported the construction of 20 homes for large foster families in Ukraine.
To date, 27 such families in different regions have already received new homes.