Standing outside their home, a Ukrainian family with five children poses beside a portable power station, solar panel, and other equipment that will help them get through something that has become a regular part of daily life: losing electricity.
Here, the power does not fail once in a while. It fails almost every day.
For these five children, electricity has never been something they can simply expect to be there. They have learned to finish homework by the light of a phone and to eat before food in the refrigerator has a chance to warm. When the electricity is available, the family has to think ahead, charging devices and preparing for the possibility that the power could disappear again.
For children growing up during the war in Ukraine, these disruptions have become part of an already difficult childhood. Power outages affect everything from preparing meals to studying after dark or keeping a phone charged when a family needs to stay connected.
Hope For Ukraine’s Solar Energy Resilience Program was created to help families continue meeting basic needs when the electrical grid cannot be relied upon. The program provides portable solar energy systems that can keep lights, phones, and essential devices working during outages. Hope For Ukraine’s goal for 2026 is to deliver 1,250 additional solar resilience kits to families in hard-hit Ukrainian communities.
For a household with five children, that backup power can change the way an ordinary evening unfolds.
Instead of immediately reaching for a phone flashlight when the lights go out, the family has another source of electricity. Phones can continue charging. Lights can stay on. Children have more time to finish schoolwork, and parents have one less uncertainty to manage when another blackout begins.
The kit does not stop the outages, and it cannot restore everything the war has disrupted. What it does provide is a greater sense of stability inside the home.
That matters when blackouts happen almost every day.
After years of war, Ukrainian families have become incredibly skilled at adapting to circumstances they never chose. They rearrange schedules around electricity, change plans when conditions suddenly shift, and find ways to keep daily routines moving for their children. Things that would once have felt extraordinary can slowly become normal simply because families have no other choice.
But becoming accustomed to something does not make it easy.
For these five children, access to backup electricity means more than having the lights on. It means being able to continue homework after sunset, keep a phone available when someone needs to make an important call, and spend an evening at home without immediately reorganizing everything around another power failure.
That is what Hope For Ukraine’s solar resilience work is meant to provide. Not a promise that the next blackout will not happen, but a way for families to be better prepared when it does.
The family is still living through the same war. The electrical grid is still uncertain. But now, when the power disappears, they have another way to keep part of their home running.
When you support Hope For Ukraine, you help us continue placing solar energy resilience kits into the hands of Ukrainian families living with repeated outages. You can support the Solar Energy Resilience Program here and help another family keep lights on, phones charged, and basic devices working when the grid goes dark.
About the Author
Evan Raftes serves as the Marketing and Community Engagement Manager at Hope For Ukraine, sharing the stories of Ukrainian communities and connecting supporters with meaningful ways to help children and families affected by the war.