These blog posts are a compilation of Irwin’s op-eds, publications, media interviews, and a variety of other features.
It was our 5th trip to Ukraine. But this time, we traveled with legendary singer/ social activist Joan Baez. This was no coincidence. Fast forward to our most recent trip to a country at war, where there is fierce combat in the east and, for the most part, in western Ukraine, people living in some of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
It is increasingly difficult to determine how many Ukrainian children have been killed, injured, or severely traumatized by Russia’s brutality since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The latest formal reports from United Nations agencies suggest that some 500 children have been killed and more than 800 severely injured as collateral casualties of the war.
A survey released today by the Ukraine Children’s Action Project (UCAP), conducted in collaboration with Kyiv-based Ratings Group, details the extreme toll of the Ukrainian war on the mental health and educational performance of the nation’s children.
Ukraine’s children matter to us. They are in the midst of an unrelenting catastrophe, dragged into a war, not of their choosing. Ukraine and the West will need all these kids to grow up educated and strong, ready to take on the enormous task of rebuilding the country that Vladimir Putin is trying to destroy. And that matters to us, too.
From the immoral border policy to the environment to the effects of the shutdown and more, the Trump administration has all but declared war on vulnerable children.
It was already clear that Donald Trump’s policies, actions, and words have put millions of children at risk. But although the longest government shutdown in American history is coming to an end, this nearly 40 day financial crisis added a whole new dimension to the challenges facing children living in poor, working poor, and even many middle-class families.
