Arriving in a new country at fifteen is its own kind of displacement. The language is wrong, the school system is unfamiliar, the friends are somewhere else, and the news from home never stops. The LUkraine Youth Club exists for exactly that: a room in Luxembourg where Ukrainian teenagers can be teenagers.
On 1 August the club welcomed a new facilitator, Mykyta, who spent the past year there as a volunteer. He knows the room from the inside, which is the whole point — the young people who come are not being managed by strangers. Alongside the group sessions, the club now runs one-to-one meetings for those who need them, and music therapy for those who find it easier to say things without words.
August has been busy. On 10 August we ran a free cooking masterclass for anyone aged eleven and up at our offices on Rue de Rollingergrund — a salad workshop, which sounds modest until you watch a dozen teenagers argue about how to dress a tomato. A group trip to Metz is in preparation, and the autumn programme is being built now.
None of it is complicated. It is a room, a facilitator who listens, and the reliability of knowing it will be there again next week. That reliability costs money, and it is the least visible thing we fund.
Keep the room open.
Donations to LUkraine asbl are tax-deductible in Luxembourg from €120 per donor per year.
Parents and young people can find our youth and family activities at Areas of activity, or write to us via the contact page.