🇺🇦 Orlando Bloom sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss solutions for protecting children traumatised by Russia's invasion.
He also visited a children's centre and bomb shelters in Kyiv where, he said, the mental anguish was "palpable"
"To see the children, to see in their eyes, the anxiety...and yet the strength of the Ukrainian people is something that is really awe-inspiring," Bloom told Volodymyr Zelensky during a sit-down meeting in one of the president's safe rooms.
"It's so horrific what's going on."
The pair discussed Russia's abduction of children and the need for foster families instead of group homes.
After praising Mr Zelensky's leadership, Bloom left him with a gift from his Buddhist mentor – a message of encouragement previously delivered to UK children – as well as a message from his own mother:
hence you must win," Bloom told the president.
"Your defeat would be the defeat of hope
It was Bloom's first trip to Ukraine since 2016. He was there as a UNICEF ambassador to raise awareness of the wars' devastating impact on children.
"I would have never expected the war to have escalated throughout the country since I was there," Bloom wrote on Instagram.
"But today, I was fortunate to hear children's laughter at a UNICEF-supported Spilno centre, a safe, warm, and nurturing space for children to play, learn and receive psychosocial support."
The Spilno centres, spread throughout Ukraine, offer support for displaced children and their families, with more than half a million children and their caregivers having visited one in the past year, according to a UNICEF statement on its website.
As of March 26, at least 465 children have been killed in the 13-month long war Russia waged against its neighbour, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office.
"He knows what this aggression has brought, how full-scale the world's efforts must be to stop it, to restore Ukraine after the war," Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address after meeting Bloom.
Orlando Bloom, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations children’s organization UNICEF and a star of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings” movies visited a children’s center in Kyiv on Sunday.
More photos below.
Comments
Post a Comment