has four children and, together with her husband, helps fellow villagers to obtain official documents, enroll their children in school and look for jobs. According to the latest poll by the Coalition of Roma Non-Governmental Organizations, around half of all Roma are unemployed. In the rural and suburban areas of Zakarpattia, the unemployment rate in Roma communities is even higher, rising to 95 per cent. According to Angela, poor education makes finding good jobs and providing for their families challenging. In the Roma settlement in the village of Kholmok, the roads are poor, most buildings are unfinished, and some houses have no running water or heating. Yulia, a mother of seven children, says that she is used to it. The family wash clothes and dishes outside, and they heat the house with a stove. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown have further exacerbated the financial vulnerability of Roma families in Zakarpattia. Children who once received meals in schools and kindergartens are now forced to stay at home for long periods, where there is not always enough money for food and medicine. According to the head of the Roma community, Josef Papp, several adults in the Zakarpattia settlement have contracted COVID-19. Now, the Roma of the village of Kholmok are serious about washing their hands and complying with hygienic precautions." OHCHR, Ukraine: Leaving no-one behind in the battle against COVID-19, 15 October 2020 "The human rights issues arising from COVID-19 are affecting the whole of Ukraine, including territory that is not currently under Government control. While the crisis has hit all of us, it also exposes the inequalities in society and hits groups in vulnerable situations the hardest. Access to healthcare, to education, to justice - to name a few - are further limited by the crisis. In the Kharkiv region, where I am working, and throughout the country, women, people in detention and institutions, older persons, homeless people, Roma and persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the crisis." UNICEF, Flash Report COVID-19 Impact on Children in Ukraine, 3 August 2020 "911 particularly vulnerable families with children with disabilities and families with children who had returned from the residential care institutions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as 867 people living in Roma settlements in western Ukraine, benefited from the provision of family hygiene kits." UNICEF, Flash Report COVID-19 Impact on Children in Ukraine, 3 July 2020 "UNICEF signed a new partnership with a civil society organization supporting Roma communities and focusing on hygiene promotion in response to COVID-19 outbreak in western Ukraine." UNICEF, Country Office Annual Report 2021 – Ukraine, Undated "Continued COVID-19 related school closures and distance education have had devastating consequences for children’s learning and wellbeing, particularly vulnerable children without access to distance learning tools, such as Roma children. The continued armed conflict in the east also negatively impacts access to quality education." "The pandemic provided UNICEF with an opportunity to expand its work on IPC and hygiene promotion, including on menstrual hygiene, to Western Ukraine reaching respectively 17,584 Romas and 8,000 Romas girls and women." Disabled people Disability Rights International, Left Behind in the War: Dangers Facing Children with Disabilities In Ukraine’s Orphanages, 5 May 2022 41