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Background

Ukraine has 145 residential institutions for adults and children with special needs, accommodating 24,086 residents. Most follow a Soviet-era model: they are in remote rural locations, use dormitory-style accommodation, offer very limited independence and choice, and provide residents with almost no opportunity to participate in local community life.

In 2009 Ukraine ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which treats institutionalisation as incompatible with the right to live independently and be included in the community.

Thanks in part to the leadership of First Lady Olena Zelenska, Ukraine has adopted the National Strategy for Reforming the System of Institutional Care and Upbringing of Children 2017–2026, which aims to shift from boarding schools to family– and community–based care. Ukraine has also committed to the EU Disability Rights Strategy 2021–2030 and related EU guidance, which prioritise independent living and the gradual phasing out of institutional care.

In December 2024, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers adopted the Strategy for Reforming Psychoneurological and Other Residential Institutions and for De-institutionalisation of Care for Persons with Disabilities and Older Persons. This strategy, which forms part of Ukraine’s EU accession commitments, seeks to replace institutional care with community-based supports so that people with disabilities can choose where and with whom they live, participate in community life, and avoid discriminatory restrictions.

The ongoing war has severely constrained Ukraine’s implementation of its deinstitutionalisation programme. In the Lviv and Kyiv regions there are seven assisted–living units, accommodating 40 people between them. These pilots demonstrate Ukraine’s intent to deinstitutionalise.

Our Policy Development Programme

Effective Aid Ukraine (EAU) has partnered with Lviv Regional Council and the Ukrainian NGO Without Limits to help Lviv Regional Council develop and implement EU-aligned policies for children and adults with disabilities, particularly those currently living in institutions.

Effective Aid Ukraine’s policy development programme is led by Dr Michael Hall, INGENIUM European University Partner Coordinator at Munster Technological University.

One of Effective Aid Ukraine’s goals is to connect Ukrainian universities with EU universities so they can deepen their understanding of EU and international best practice in active, independent living for children and adults with disabilities and translate this knowledge into policy and practice.

Effective Aid Ukraine also sponsors Ukrainian officials and academics to visit Ireland to see how EU disability policies are being implemented, with a particular focus on deinstitutionalisation.

In 2025, Effective Aid Ukraine brought a Ukrainian delegation to Ireland to visit organisations working with children and adults with special needs, including Stewarts Care, a voluntary social–care organisation supporting more than 2,000 children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.

These exchanges are helping to build a community of Ukrainian and EU practitioners and policymakers who are committed to replacing institutional care with inclusive, community–based supports.

Since May 2023, Effective Aid Ukraine has been redeveloping Rozdil Friends Home, which accommodates about 100 boys and young men with significant special needs, including some relocated from the temporarily–occupied Zaporizhzhia region. Our partners in this work are the Lviv Regional Authority and the Ukrainian NGO Without Limits.

Working closely with Yulia Kalyta, the director of the centre, and Oleksandra Yanovych, founder of Without Limits and chair of the centre’s board, we developed a long–term plan for the sustainable redevelopment of Rozdil.

In our 27 years working with residential centres for children with special needs, we had never encountered an institution as poorly equipped as Rozdil. To develop Rozdil into a model of active and independent living, it became clear that the facility first required a complete restoration.

That restoration is now well advanced. Together with our partners, we have renovated most of the dormitories, installed a new sensory room with full sensory equipment, replaced the outdated kitchen with a modern industrial facility, redeveloped the craft room, and installed new industrial laundry equipment. We have also built a new greenhouse where the boys are learning to grow their own food.
Play and sport are vital for all children, and especially for children with special needs. We are installing a new playground and an outdoor gym, both due for completion by the end of December 2025.

Every resident has the right to learn digital skills and to have access to computers. We have supplied a full suite of laptops for a new computer room for the boys, along with new computers for administrative staff.
A key principle of sustainable assistance is enabling an institution to maintain itself effectively. For that reason, we prioritised the renovation and re-equipping of the centre’s maintenance facilities.

These now have a comprehensive range of tools, including heavy-duty power equipment. Experience shows that this intervention alone can transform a run-down institution.

Ultimately, the best way to help people living in an institution is to support them to leave it. Deinstitutionalisation is the long-term goal. In the meantime, working with the Irish NGO The Bridge, we have provided a wheelchair-accessible minibus so the boys can go on excursions for the first time.

Alongside this, we have supplied new clothing for all residents, provided craft materials on an ongoing basis, and ensured that every resident has toys. Each Christmas we visit the centre with gifts chosen from the boys’ letters to Santa. Boys who cannot write draw pictures, and boys unable to draw record short videos to share their wishes.

In line with the Ukrainian Government’s commitment to independent and assisted living for people with special needs currently in institutional settings, Effective Aid Ukraine is committed to ensuring that as many residents of Rozdil Friends Home as possible can live as independently as their abilities allow.

We plan to build five two-bedroom modular homes on the grounds of Rozdil Friends Home, but set apart from the main building. These homes will allow 20 residents to learn the skills required for independent living while living semi–independent lives. They will cook and clean for themselves, plan their own budgets, and make daily decisions about how they want to live. Centre staff will support them, with each resident’s degree of autonomy linked to the life skills they develop.

When local resources and community supports allow, some or all of the residents of these homes will transition to independent or semi-independent living in the wider community.

The Effective Aid Ukraine independent living project is designed to be fully replicable in other Ukrainian residential centres for children and adults with special needs. Once operational, it can be scaled across multiple institutions, assisting Ukraine meet its deinstitutionalisation commitments effectively and within a realistic timeframe.