Kyiv PlayHub on Novodarnytska Street in 2015

We are pleased to inform the Kyiv community that PlayHub in Kyiv will continue to operate in 2025.

For the third year in a row, a friendly team of specialists from the NGO ‘Labour and Health Social Initiatives’ (LHSI) has been providing early childhood development services to families with young children at the premises of the partner Kyiv City Family Centre ‘Family House’ at 26 Novodarnitskaya Street, Kyiv.

At the centre, parents of children from internally displaced families and other categories can receive free consultations on the early development of their children aged 0-6 years, while their children join the classes. Our experts will select games and developmental literature and help them find the necessary assistance if needed. At the same time, their older brothers and sisters will be able to join the Family House activities (more about other partner activities).

Thanks to systematic work in 2024, PlayHub was visited by 1177 children and 1168 of their parents.

‘The centre brings together families who have come to Kyiv from different parts of Ukraine and from Kyiv, but are unable to attend kindergartens for one reason or another, or who have questions about how best to develop their children, what toys are most suitable for them and what development strategies to choose,’ comments Ilona Yeleneva, director of LHSI. - ‘Thanks to our cooperation with EU partners, all services at the centre are free of charge for low-income families, because despite the challenges of the war, children continue to grow and need support right here and now.’

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Play Hub has visited 138 IDP families.

The PlayHub provides a variety of services: from organising and conducting interactive readings for children with the involvement of their parents called ‘Fairy Tale Time’, creative classes (master classes) for children and parents, a free communication club for mothers called ‘Mom for Mom’ to the services of a speech therapist, massage services for children, a physiologist and rehabilitation therapist for adults, and organising and conducting a psychological club for mothers called ‘Women's Circle’.

This work is being implemented by the Labour and Health Social Initiatives (LHSI) organisation starting in 2023 with the support of the Porticus charity in cooperation with International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI, the Netherlands). In 2025, the activity will continue with the support of the European Commission.