There are between 350 – 500,000 Jews living in Ukraine, in a population of 46 million. Officially, 40% of the Ukrainian population are considered to be pensioners although unofficial statistics would suggest the figure is closer to 50%. The majority of these pensioners are barely subsisting on the government pension with which they are provided and require outside assistance to reach even a basic level of acceptable living. Many live in damp, dilapidated apartments in buildings with broken lifts and crumbling flights of stairs.

For children, the Government of Ukraine has made commitments to the rights of children, but spending on services for them remains low. Children, as with the elderly, are a particularly vulnerable group in the Ukraine. The country is on the brink of an HIV/AIDS epidemic – large numbers of those infected are under 30, and there has been an alarming number of mother to child transmissions. Many children from low-income families survive on poor diets with little or no access to primary health care.