Ukrainian children
and mothers.
Winter clothing, a summer school and family support on the Ukrainian border, delivered by AMAR Romania with US Friends of AMAR.
Warmth, school
and a way through.
Since 2022 AMAR has worked with US Friends of AMAR on the Ukrainian border: winter clothing for displaced children, a summer school that brings Ukrainian and Romanian pupils together, and support for mothers and families who have lost homes and livelihoods to the war.
Children in border communities such as Teresva, Krushova and Kryva face acute hardship. Many have been displaced from conflict-affected regions, others have parents on the front line, and schools operate with limited heating and power. Local authorities warned that many pupils lacked proper winter clothing.
AMAR's answer is practical and repeated every year: warm clothing produced by volunteers, delivered by AMAR Romania and placed directly into children's hands on St Nicholas Day, the protector saint of children. Classrooms welcome the team with songs and carols, and teachers report immediate relief for children walking long distances to school in freezing temperatures.
Over 11,000 hand-knitted hat and scarf sets delivered to Ukrainian and Romanian children, aged three to seventeen.
Hats and Scarves programme
Four ways
we help.
Hats and scarves
Every winter, volunteers across the United States and the United Kingdom hand-knit thousands of hats and scarves, each with a personal message. AMAR's Romania team carries them across the border to schools in Zakarpattia and to communities in Maramureș.
Summer school
Each August, Ukrainian and Romanian children come together in Sighetu Marmației for three weeks of structured learning, creative workshops and psychosocial support, with full board for the Ukrainian group.
Mothers and families
Displaced mothers and children in Romania receive practical help, inclusive education support and a trusted local team that knows the mayors, principals, teachers and psychologists on both sides of the border.
Frontline reach
Sets are also delivered to Nikopol, a frontline city facing some of the harshest winter and security conditions in Ukraine, where schools run on six hours of electricity a day.
Three weeks that
change a year.
Sixty children from Ukraine and seventy-five from Romania spend three weeks together in a safe, inclusive and culturally rich setting: daily teaching, creative workshops, psychosocial support, inclusive cultural events and a celebration day. Ukrainian children travel from conflict-affected regions, including a thirty-hour train journey from Nikopol, and are looked after by mixed teams of Ukrainian carers, Romanian teachers and volunteers, and AMAR staff from Romania and the UK.
The school has run every year since 2022. Alongside it, AMAR's presence in the region includes inclusive education support and vocational programmes, which give the trust, networks and operational capacity to reach displaced children quickly, safely and with dignity.
Warmth, knitted
by hand.
Every autumn, volunteers across the United States and the United Kingdom, led by US Friends of AMAR, knit thousands of hats and scarves, each with a personal note of care. The sets are packed and shipped at the volunteers' own cost to AMAR's team in Romania, which manages the cross-border logistics and works with mayors, principals, teachers and psychologists to reach the children who need them most.
Distributions take place on St Nicholas Day in kindergartens, lycées and inclusive schools in Zakarpattia, in the communities of Maramureș, and in frontline cities where schools run on a few hours of electricity a day. Teachers report immediate relief for children who walk long distances to school in freezing temperatures. More than eleven thousand sets have been delivered to date.
Stitching
futures.
Stitching Futures, Sighetu MarmațieiIn Sighetu Marmației, Romanian women and Ukrainian refugee women from across the border in Solotvyno share a deep tradition of textile craft. AMAR's Stitching Futures programme, run with US Friends of AMAR, trains them in the historical embroidery motifs of Maramureș and the neighbouring Ukrainian regions, with sewing machines, materials and business support, at a venue given free by the town's technical high school.
Eighty hours of hands-on training lead to commercial-quality finished pieces and a first online shop window, so that a heritage skill becomes income earned from home. Each cohort brings Romanian and Ukrainian women into the same room, which is as much the point as the stitching.
