The latest episode of Unreported World exposes the plight of Ukraine's street children which UNICEF estimates could total 100,000. Many of these children live under the streets of Ukraine's cities battling dreadful conditions.

Marcel Theroux and Suemay Oram go underground in Kiev to meet some of these children and find out what their lives are like. At the other end of the spectrum, they meet Oksana, a young woman we supported to escape life on the streets and keep her family together.

Oksana spent her childhood in one of Ukraine's 636 children's institutions where she had no experience of life in a family and left lacking even basic life skills. Like many young people leaving institutions, she struggled to cope when she fell pregnant and had her own child. Before long her own daughter was institutionalised – a cycle all too common in Ukraine.

When we met Oksana she had just given birth to her second child – another baby girl. Homeless and without any identification papers, she couldn't access any social support or benefits for her and her daughter until we helped her to get properly registered. We continued to support her over the next couple of years when the family hit turbulent times.

Three years ago, Oksana got in touch and asked us to help her find her eldest daughter. After much searching, we found her daughter living 300 miles away in Lviv and the family were able to be reunited. We continue to stay in touch with the family but they no longer need any formal support.

Oksana's story is an inspiration and testament to the effect that just a small amount support can have for a vulnerable family. Not only has she escaped the spiral of life on the streets, with a little support she has also escaped the cycle of institutionalisation which could so easily have resulted in her own children being institutionalised and ending up on the streets as she had.

For many of Ukraine's street children, the ending is not so happy. Tune in at 7.30pm to hear their stories and see first hand the difference we made to Oksana and her children.

Read more about our work in Ukraine or donate now to support our work with vulnerable families.

The prize for the winning entry goes to Abi Tuddenham. Fondly remembered as 'the grub photo', apparently Abi's doting big brothers are trying to avoid acknowledging - let alone cuddling - the baby sister on their lap who, they felt, looked like a grub.

Congratulations Abi, who wins a set of Vue Cinema family tickets, and thank you to everyone who took part.

Here's a selection of our favourite entries. Click on any of the photos to read more.

To mark this year's International Day of Families on Tuesday 15 May, we are inviting you to help us celebrate families in all their glory.

From 10am on Tuesday 15 May, we are asking all of our supporters to share their funniest and most embarrassing family photos on our Facebook page as part of the We love families photo competition. A family ticket to a Vue Cinema is on offer for the best entry.

If tweeting is more your cup of tea, you can submit your photo on Twitter. Just remember to mention @hopeandhomes and use the hashtag #welovefamilies to be in with a chance of winning the prize.

Sharing your photos on Facebook or Twitter is a great way to tell your friends and contacts about Hope and Homes for Children and help us to reach out to more people so we can make sure even more children grow up with the love of a family.

For those without access to Facebook or Twitter, you can also email us your entries, on or before Tuesday, which we will post on our Facebook page on your behalf throughout the day.

Why not encourage your friends and family to share their photos too and help us spread the word even further?

Terms and conditions

1. The competition is open to UK residents over the age of 18. Non UK residents are welcome to submit their photos but should be aware that no alternative prize is available.
2. Hope and Homes for Children staff and their family members may submit photographs but are not eligible to receive the prize.
3. Only photographs entered with the full permission of the subjects are eligible.
3. Hope and Homes for Children reserves the right to remove any photograph which is judged likely to cause harm or offence by our moderators. Normal Facebook and Twitter guidelines regarding images apply.
4. Photos will be judged by a panel of Hope and Homes for Children staff at 5pm on Tuesday 15 May 2012.
5. The prize is a family ticket for use at any Vue cinemas.  The expiry date for the tickets is 31 December 2012.
6. Winners will be notified by private message on Facebook or direct message on Twitter on Wednesday 16 May 2012. In the case of entries via email, winners will be notified by email. Winners are required to provide a full address within 21 days of notification in order to receive the prize. Hope and Homes for Children reserves the right to reallocate the prize after this deadline has lapsed. The ticket will be sent special delivery withing 14 days of receipt of your address.
7. Hope and Homes for Children will not use these photographs for any other purpose than displaying as part of this competition on Twitter, Facebook and the Hope and Homes for Children  website. Normal Facebook and Twitter conditions apply.

In a recent visit, members of the local authorities from two regions of Ukraine - Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk – and representatives from other Ukrainian NGOs toured the Ray of Hope Centre which opened last year to provide a range of community based services for children and vulnerable families. These include an Emergency Reception Centre for vulnerable children in need of urgent care, a Mother and Baby Unit to support new families at this critical time and a Small Family Home for up to 12 children and young people who cannot return to their families or be fostered or adopted for a variety of reasons.

During a day of learning, the delegation had the opportunity to hear in detail about the services the Centre provides, find out how different agencies cooperate to provide integrated support for families from the Centre and learn from the experience we gained through the project, with a view to replicating the it in other areas of Ukraine.

In 2010 we closed the Barvinok Institution in Makariv. Less than 10 per cent of the 80 children who lived there were actually orphans – most had families living in the local community who had made the difficult decision to give up their children when they felt they could no longer look after them. The services at the Ray of Hope Centre are designed to make sure that vulnerable families always have somewhere to turn so that no such institution is ever needed again in Makariv.

Read more about our work in Ukraine.

This revelation came after Bulgaria's new Minister for Health, Desislava Atanasova, made an impromptu visit to the institution, which is 'home' to over 150 children, and uncovered conditions which have led journalists in Bulgaria to label it a death camp for children. Others have named the Pleven Institution Mogilino 2, after the institution which was exposed in a 2007 BBC documentary and closed shortly afterwards.

In a press conference following her visit, the Minister reported on the terrible conditions she met. Children well beyond nursing age were found to be fed from bottles, with their meals blended into one mixture. She found urine-soaked linen and children of two and three years old unable to walk or talk. Meanwhile, despite this being an institution for babies, the Minister also found 16 year olds reportedly weighing under 10 kilos and 10 year olds weighing under 7 kilos. Reports have suggested that keeping these children in the institution beyond the age limit was a tactic used to protect the jobs of the institution's 170 staff.

Our Director of Programmes, Dr Delia Pop commented, "Bulgaria has the highest number of institutions for babies in the EU. To think that children can be living and, in some cases, dying in these conditions on our doorstep is an outrage."

In Bulgaria we are prioritising the closure of institutions for babies as research shows that institutions cause most harm in a child's first three years of life. These institutions are also one of the main entry points into the system as children are most likely to be abandoned in early childhood. By replacing institutions with services which support families to stay together and provide family-based alternatives, we can stem the flow of children into the institutional system, where they would otherwise often remain for the rest of their childhood.

Having successfully closed the Teteven Institution in the Lovech province of Bulgaria, we have been invited by the Government to close eight institutions for babies over the next two years and we are working to secure funding to close a further five, one of which will be the now infamous Pleven Institution. In the meantime we will be working closely with the Ministry and the local child protection agencies to stabilise the situation at the Pleven Institution.

Read more about our work in Bulgaria or donate now to support our work.

The carnival, organised by the local Child Protection Department, offered children from four Small Family Homes in the area the opportunity to meet and celebrate with other children and young people and build their confidence and self esteem. Dressed as clowns, princesses and cartoon characters, the children performed poems, sang and danced for their friends and peers who watched, applauding and encouraging each performance.

Mariana Niculae who oversees the four Small Family Homes commented:

“These children from Small Family Homes are no different from other children who have grown up in families – their aspirations and wishes are the same and they can be achieved as long as they are supported by those around them and surrounded with the love and respect they deserve”.

Our Small Family Homes provide a safe family-type environment for children and young adults who cannot be reunited with their families or placed in foster care.

Read more about our work in Romania.

Serhiy Tigipko, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy, has visited the Ray of Hope Centre in the Makariv region where we recently closed the Barvinok Institution and opened the Centre to provide alternative, family-based services in the community.

Mr Tigipko spoke to children and mothers and met with community representatives to discover the wider impact the Ray of Hope Centre is having in the local area. Our Country Director Halyna Postoliuk also gave a presentation on our model for deinstitutionalisation and transforming childcare services.

Following the visit Mr Tigipko held a meeting with the heads of departments of the Ministry of Social Policy to discuss ways of supporting innovative services like the Ray of Hope Centre across Ukraine. Mr Tigipko's tour of the Centre comes just weeks after a visit by The Ukraine Ombudsman for Children's Rights – proof that the Centre is influencing the Government to make positive changes to childcare services in Ukraine.

There is a strong history of dependency on institutions in Ukraine. The nation currently has one of the highest records in Europe for institutionalising children, with an estimated 70,000 children currently resident in 636 institutions. More than 800 babies are abandoned in Ukraine every year.

The Ray of Hope Centre provides a range of services to the community which support vulnerable families to prevent them becoming separated which all too often results in children being institutionalised. We aim to use the project as a pilot, to demonstrate a better way to care for children and families and influence change across Ukraine.

Read more about our work in Ukraine.

Hope and Homes for Children was founded during the Siege of Sarajevo when we rebuilt the bomb-damaged Bjelave orphanage. We now focus on closing institutions and ensuring children grow up in a loving family environment. Despite the knowledge that exists about the damaging impact of institutions on a child's development, there are three times as many institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina as there were during the war.

The legacy of the war continues to have a damaging impact on family structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Post-traumatic stress disorder, physical health issues, lack of tolerance towards mixed marriages and continuing unemployment all prevent families from staying together. Children frequently end up being placed in institutions because the Centres for Social Work lack the capacity and motivation to fully support families in their own homes.

ACTIVE Family Support is an intensive programme which prevents children from being separated from their parents and reintegrates children living in institutions back into their biological families. The programme is tailored to the individual needs of each child and family. Families who are referred to Hope and Homes for Children are helped to assess their own strengths and needs across six wellbeing domains. The family is assigned a support team consisting of social workers, pedagogues and psychologists who work intensively with the parents and children for a defined period of time, which on average is seven months.

The impact report covers the period from 2003/04 to 2010/11. During this time 845 individuals (479 children and 366 adults) from 245 families were supported. Significant outcomes include:

• Prevention of separation of children from their families was achieved in 98% of cases.
• Children's lives improved in all wellbeing domains.
• From 2003-2010 the total cost of the ACTIVE Family Support Programme was €441 560, which represents an average total of €921 per child.
• 32% of the children would have been placed in an institution if they had not accessed ACTIVE Family Support. The total cost of institutional placements for these children would have been approximately €4,123,250.
• The progress made by families was maintained or even continued to develop during the year following the end of support in 88% of cases.
• In the reintegration component of the programme, 82% of children left institutions and were successfully reintegrated into their biological families whilst a further 14% left large institutions to live with foster families.

Read the full report or find out more about how Hope and Homes for Children began.

Look no further than our next Night of Adventure in London's Leicester Square on Monday 25 June 2012.

Tickets have just gone on sale for this exciting event which will bring together an eclectic collection of first-class adventurers, from across the spectrum of explorers, daredevils and pioneers, to share their experiences with a live audience.

Each speaker is limited to just 20 slides to accompany their tales, shown on a huge cinema screen. The challenge is that each slide will automatically scroll forward after just 20 seconds. With this unusual and challenging presentation format, once the talks begin there is no stopping or going back, the audience must be ready to be swept from adventure to adventure!

Confirmed speakers for the event include round-the-world cyclist and Atlantic rower Alastair Humphreys.

Keep up-to-date as we reveal more of our thrilling line-up for this years’ event on our Facebook page.

Tickets are £20 each and available online or by calling 01722 790111.

Would be daredevils and adventurers book early to avoid disappointment, the last event sold out in a matter of weeks!

Here are some audio slideshows from a recent Night of Adventure.

You can view more audio slideshows here.

The closure of Mpore PEFA is still in progress, with a target closure date of May 2012. However, our work there is already showing that it is possible to move children out of institutions into safe and loving families. Combined with our tireless advocacy, a national survey of institutions and the support of partners such as UNICEF, this work has contributed to a strong momentum around child care reform.

The commitment was included in the National Strategy for Child Care Reform, approved by the Cabinet and chaired by President Paul Kagame this week. The aim of the strategy is to transform Rwanda's current child care and protection system into a family-based system which is targeted at strengthening vulnerable families and supporting them to remain together.

We are now working with the Government to make a detailed plan for the closure of the countries remaining 34 institutions, placing 3153 children back into families.

Read more about our work in Rwanda.