Harry Potter author JK Rowling has pledged to personally match donations to a charity appeal to help vulnerable children in Ukraine up to £1m. The Lumos charity, which she co-founded, is working in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
The charity is seking to help children trapped in orphanages by providing emergency food, medical kits and hygiene products. It is also helping families, foster carers and emergency foster carers.
In a tweet on Monday, Rowling said: "I will personally match donations to this appeal, up to £1m. Thank you so, so much to all who’ve already donated, you’re enabling @lumos to do crucial work for some of the most vulnerable children in Ukraine."
She added that Lumos. which she co-founded in 2005, is a charity specifically for children in institutions and during war. It has been operating in the Zhytomyr region to the west of the capital, Kyiv.
The charity has estimated there are more than 1,500 children trapped in orphanages there, with many more at risk of displacement and family separation. It says: "Children in Ukraine face an uncertain future and are at risk of displacement and family separation.
"We urgently need your support to help protect as many children as we can by providing emergency food, hygiene and medical kits, and by helping to support families and foster carers to look after displaced and traumatised children."
You can support the charity appeal here.
On Monday, Russia announced yet another cease-fire and a handful of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee Ukraine – despite previous measures falling apart and Moscow’s armed forces continuing to pummel some Ukrainian cities with rockets even after the announcement.
Well into the second week of war, Russia’s plan to quickly overrun the country has been stymied by fierce resistance. Its troops have made significant advances in southern Ukraine and along the coast, but many of its efforts have become stalled, including an immense military convoy that has been almost motionless for days north of Kyiv.
The fighting has sent energy prices surging worldwide, stocks plummeting, and is threatening the food supply and livelihoods of people around the world who rely on farmland in the Black Sea region.
The death toll from the fighting, meanwhile, remains unclear. The UN said it has confirmed just a few hundred civilian deaths but also warned that the number is a vast undercount. Police for the Kharkiv region said on Monday that 209 people have died there alone — 133 of them civilians.
The Russian invasion has also pushed 1.5 million people to flee the country, creating what the head of the UN refugee agency called “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since” the Second World War.
