Sixteen-year-old Jaden Braves says he chose to travel to Ukraine and volunteer for a humanitarian aid group operating in a war zone because he thinks young people need to step up when others are suffering.
Braves, who is from Toronto and is the founder of the Young Politicians of Canada, was in Kyiv for about two weeks in July. He told The Canadian Press he was there to support the organization Save Ukraine, which organizes rescue missions to return Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
"That's kind of pushed me to come to a war zone for the first time," he said. "I think it's about totally humbling yourself and saying that you're prepared to, you know, put yourself at risk for something that you understand is so important to the greater good."
A team of experts at Yale University has estimated that as many as 35,000 Ukrainian children may be held in Russia and its occupied territories.
It is feared that many have been taken by Russian forces and sent to military camps or foster care, or have been adopted by Russian families.
Braves said that while he was in Ukraine, he met with the Canadian and Austrian ambassadors and other officials to see how countries like Canada and those in the EU can support Ukraine, especially in the wake of U.S. cuts to overseas aid.
“It's just about slowly figuring that out, how can we be successful in ensuring Ukraine wins and ensuring that 30,000 kids that have been wrongfully kidnapped and are experiencing sexual abuse and are experiencing militarization and brainwashing can be brought home,” Braves told The Canadian Press Tuesday from the basement of the InterContinental hotel in Kyiv during an air raid alert.
Braves said he also attended an anticorruption protest in Kyiv and met with young people who have been rescued by Save Ukraine to hear their stories.
He said he spoke to people from England and New Zealand who are in the country doing humanitarian work.
“We've definitely worked on figuring out where there's opportunity to collaborate," he said.
The Government of Canada website says Canada has committed $6.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of 2022. It also says Canada has allocated more than $585 million in development assistance and $372.2 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
Braves said he’s been working to figure out how Canada can effectively roll out that support for Ukraine.
He said that before heading to Kyiv, he attended various conferences in other European countries for about a month, including the UN Ocean Summit in Nice and the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague. He said he also visited Cambridge, U.K., to work on data projects and Georgia to deliver lectures and host an English leadership camp.
Braves said his journey to Kyiv was long and included a 17-hour train ride from Poland. He said that while he stayed in an apartment most of the time in Kyiv, he spent two nights in an underground metro station filled with civilians sheltering from Russian airstrikes.
Braves said being in Kyiv allowed him to learn about the "incredibly vibrant" Ukrainian culture and the country's strength.
"I've witnessed a story of resilience when a country continues to be under fire that just decides they will not take missiles as an excuse to move out of the land that they call home," he said.
"I understand that democracy and Western civilization has been the best representation of successful society as we know it, and that must be preserved, and that's compelled me sufficiently to figure out how I can help."
Braves said he was inspired to get involved when participating in the NATO summit in Washington in 2024 as a representative of NATO Canada.
"I was kind of enlightened to a global movement to protect the front lines of democracy," he said. "That NATO summit really woke me up to the need to commit to Ukraine and I saw the efforts that Canada has been putting in."
Braves said that Canada is co-chair of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and that, as a Canadian, he also felt responsible for that work.
Braves said he’s working on forming a coalition of young Canadians to press for the return of Ukrainians taken by Russia. He said he has been in touch with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office to discuss how Canada can help bring those children home.
"I look forward to coming back to Canada and continuing to ensure Canada can collaborate further with Ukraine," Braves said.
"We as young people need to go support other young people that are in very dire situations like other places in the world where we're seeing humanitarian crises. This is certainly one of them."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Jaden Braves
