A Back-to-School Boost

Knights of Columbus distribute more than 1,200 care packages to Ukrainian children returning to school

By Kateryna Kolodii

Oct. 15, 2025

Knights From Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Council 17651 — Knights from Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Council 17651 and school faculty and staff gather with children during a distribution of student care packages at School No. 86 in Lviv, Ukraine, Sept. 10.

In Ukraine, Russian attacks have damaged more than 3,800 school buildings and other educational institutions, leaving 365 completely destroyed. Not only has the physical infrastructure for learning been shattered, but the war has deeply affected the lives of children, depriving many of the opportunity to study in safe conditions.

Against this tragic backdrop, parents preparing children for the new school year are also faced with the usual school supply expenses. To help meet the need, more than 50 Knights of Columbus councils from across Ukraine, with financial support from the Supreme Council and the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, organized an initiative this August to provide school care packages for young students returning to school. The councils collected and distributed more than 1,200 packages of supplies.

“In each backpack, we included everything a child needs for school, so that mothers wouldn’t have to worry and their children would have everything from the start,” said State Treasurer Myroslav Mazur.

For mothers whose husbands are missing or have been killed in the war, preparing children for school is not only financially but emotionally trying.

“We paid particular attention to the families of the missing, because while the families of the fallen are eligible for support from the state, those whose relatives are missing receive virtually no support at all,” said Mazur, who coordinated the project. “We wanted those families to feel that they are not forgotten, that we are with them.”

In many cities, the backpack distributions took place after tense nights punctuated by air raid alerts. “That night was an extremely difficult one for our city,” said Grand Knight Ivan Horbach of Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Council 17651 in Lviv. “When the children arrived, they were clearly exhausted despite being excited [about the new school supplies].”

Children who have been left uncared for suffer most from the war, Horbach explained. For many, home is eerily silent, with their father absent and their mother forced to provide for the family alone.

“Children come home and neither mom nor dad is there,” Horbach continued. “When you hand out a backpack, you feel a kind of joy that you can at least help somehow, so the child can have a few moments of happiness.”

For the Knights, helping children who have experienced loss is a challenging responsibility. “We were very cautious about how to approach the children,” said Horbach. “Some of their parents had died, and others were serving in the military; it was important not to add to their emotional wounds.”

Children hold school care packages they received from the Knights of Columbus through the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity at the religious order’s Mother and Child Center in Kharkiv, in September.

With assistance from the teachers and school principal, Horbach and other Knights from Council 17651 were able to connect with the children. “When the parents began to express their gratitude, I realized that the Knights of Columbus are on the right path,” Horbach said.

Even as many Knights faced their own challenges, they made these families a priority, putting charity into action. Many took time off from work to be present for the children and support the cause. “It united the Knights and the community,” said Horbach.

Packages were also sent to the Congregation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity (Orionists) in Kharkiv, 25 miles from the Russian border, where the sisters have run a home for mothers and children in crisis for 15 years. Children in the region frequently wake up to the sound of explosions and face the loss of loved ones, a disrupted education, and an uncertain future.

“Some children and mothers fled from the occupied territories. Their homes are gone; everything has been razed to the ground,” said Sister of Charity Renata Jurczak. “They saw it, they lived through it, and they are filled with suffering.”

Despite the overwhelming tragedy, concrete support still matters, even on a small scale, she added. “For a child, it is a tremendous joy to receive a backpack filled with school supplies and notebooks,” Sister Jurczak said. “When they open it, they are so happy, so full of joy.”

The value of the backpacks went beyond the items inside. One boy, Misha, received his backpack and said, “Sister, now I am a Knight too,” Sister Jurczak recalled. “He put it on his chest instead of his back, stood tall, and said, ‘I will be like a Knight.’ It shows his capacity for the nobility, kindness, and love that the [Knights] bring.”

Because children are the future of Ukraine, they have a right to education and a sense of stability even in the midst of war, said State Deputy Mykola Mostovyak. “We want to show children that there are always men nearby, ready to support them with kindness and care,” he said.

The Knights plan to make the school care package program an annual initiative, striving to reach more children throughout the country.

“Faith without works is dead,” concluded Mostovyak, quoting the Letter of St. James (2:26). “True Christian service is revealed in concrete actions — in help, in presence, in support.”

To learn more about our work in Ukraine and to support those efforts, visit kofc.org/ukraine.

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KATERYNA KOLODII writes from Lviv, Ukraine.