Orlando Bloom visits Ukraine in role as UNICEF ambassador

MOSCOW – British actor Orlando Bloom, in a more serious role as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, has visited schools in eastern Ukraine to raise awareness of how the conflict there has hurt children.

In video and photos released Wednesday by UNICEF, Bloom plays games with children, talks to their parents and teachers and goes down into a basement that serves as a bomb shelter.

The school Bloom visited in late April in Slovyansk was among the first hit by shelling when fighting broke out two years ago between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. It is one of 57 that the United Nations Children’s Fund has helped to repair and refurbish.

UNICEF estimates that about 300,000 children in the conflict zone are still in need of assistance to continue their education.