On the Eve of St. Nicholas Day, the President and the First Lady Met with a Large Foster Family in the Kyiv Region

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On the eve of St. Nicholas Day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska met with the large foster family of Vasyl and Natalia Liashko, who are raising seven children.

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American businessman and philanthropist Dell Loy Hansen joined Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska during the visit. It was with his support that the Olena Zelenska Foundation built a home for the Liashko family under the Room for Childhood project.

The President and the First Lady spoke with the parents and children about their family's story and their impressions of life in their new home.

Vasyl and Natalia shared that, before the full-scale Russian invasion, they lived with their children in the Kherson region. However, after the occupation of their village, Hornostaivka, they were forced to leave their home and evacuate. At first, they stayed with acquaintances in Kryvyi Rih, later lived in a school in Kropyvnytskyi, then in the Cherkasy region, and in July this year, the family moved into this house in the Kyiv region.

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"We know what it means to live in difficult conditions. We know what it means to move from place to place. And we know what it means to live in a school. That's why we now have an amazing home, and we are truly happy in it," Nataliia Liashko said.

The President and the First Lady thanked Dell Loy Hansen for his assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainians and for his constant attention. The philanthropist not only contributed to the construction of this house but also built a free settlement for internally displaced persons, designed for more than 430 families - a full complex of apartment buildings and standalone houses with all necessary social infrastructure.

Room for Childhood is a project of the Olena Zelenska Foundation aimed at building new homes for large foster families. It is a response to the consequences of the full-scale war, which has deprived thousands of Ukrainian families, including large foster families, of their homes. Within the project, 15 houses have already been built across eight regions of our country.