20 million of euro worth of aid: in Ukraine, we are helping people forced to live in cellars and shelters; in the Czech republic, we are supporting integration
Published: Jun 16, 2022 Reading time: 9 minutesWe have already provided more than 20 million of euro worth of aid to the victims of the war in Ukraine. In the past month, PIN’s Ukraine team has grown to 189 employees working to bring relief to people in the affected areas. Thanks to our partner organisations, we have delivered humanitarian aid to shelled towns in eastern Ukraine. We delivered thousands of litres of drinking water to help the more than 2,000 people sheltering in cellars in the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast. We have helped more than 260,000 people in Ukraine since the invasion.
In the Czech Republic, we are helping Ukrainian refugees and local governments in 10 of the 13 regions to find accommodation, process documents, and provide health care. We are also helping Ukrainian students access education. We organise and coordinate assistance in refugee centres in Pilsen, Klatovy, Tachov, Karlovy Vary, and Beroun, and we will open another one next week in Olomouc. Every day, we deal with dozens of new applications and longer-term cases on our Ukrainian helpline.
Thanks to the response to our SOS UKRAINE emergency appeal, people and companies have contributed more than €76,8 million to help victims of war. In total, we have provided more than €20 million worth of aid.
Read the latest summary of People in Need’s aid in Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
Contents
AID IN UKRAINE
HELP IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
ASSISTANCE IN MOLDOVA
AID IN UKRAINE
Water and food supplied to shelters and collective centres
Aid worth €14,6 million
Over the past month, we have been helping people across Ukraine. In the west of the country, we mainly work in collective centres for internal refugees; in the east, we have delivered water and food to besieged towns and villages. Since the invasion, we have dispatched 15 trains and 39 trucks full of humanitarian aid from the Czech Republic.
In the east of Ukraine, especially in the Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, the humanitarian situation is deteriorating due to fierce fighting. Tens of thousands of people are still hiding in cellars and shelters, without food, water, medicine, or hygiene supplies. Since the end of May, the Luhansk Oblast has been cut off from water supplies, which cannot be restored because of the fighting. Thanks to local volunteers and organisations, we can still deliver humanitarian aid to the areas close to the frontline.
In the last four weeks, we have helped more than 21,000 people in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast with non-perishable foodstuffs. Additionally, we set up an outdoor kitchen where around 2,000 people eat every day. In the towns of Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, and Hirsk in the Luhansk Oblast, we have delivered 13,170 litres of drinking water to 1,000 people, food for more than 5,300 people and home-baking bread packages to 1,200 people. In Vuhledar and other places in the Donetsk Oblast, we supplied more than 22,000 litres of water to 4,000 people and provided food for 4,500 people.
We are also involved in rehabilitating damaged centralised water supply systems in recently liberated areas. "In the Kyiv Oblast, we support local water companies with repairs in localities such as Irpin and Borodyanka. We have delivered five new pumping stations to Borodyanka , which will provide better access to water for 10,000 people. We are providing similar support to local authorities in the Chernihiv Oblast, where we have delivered two new pumping stations. This is possible thanks to the financial support of the European Union," says Petr Drbohlav, People in Need's Director for the Eastern Partnership and the Balkans.
In the north and west of the country, we continue to equip collective centres and support towns and villages where the people are returning home. Collective centres in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast have received fridges, bedding, and kitchen equipment. We have also helped 2,800 people who fled to the safety of collective centres in the Lviv Oblast.
We are helping financially where local markets still work or in places where we don't have our own teams
Aid worth €3 million
Funds from donors in the Czech Republic also help in areas where we do not have our own teams. The funds enable us to support partner volunteer associations to deliver humanitarian aid in the form of drinking water, food, mattresses, and generators right up to the edge of the frontline. Our local partners also provide psychosocial assistance and tutoring in collective centres. In total, we have provided more than 200 grants to local organisations.
One of the most effective forms of aid is direct financial assistance. We provide this in places where the shops operate. People themselves know best what their needs are, and by providing them with cash assistance, we support their dignity and the local market. Direct financial assistance is paid out in small amounts over three months, and we aim to help 18,900 people in this way.
Preparing for winter and repairing damaged houses
In addition to food and water deliveries, we are beginning to focus on longer-term aid in devastated areas, particularly preparing for winter. "We are already planning how to position ourselves to support people ahead of the coming winter. We are planning housing repairs and small infrastructure projects," says People in Need director Šimon Pánek. Collective centres for internal refugees and individual families living in their own homes will need our help to prepare for the cold. We are already starting to help with small house repairs, and we will deliver basic materials and tools to Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
HELP IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Aid worth €2,6 million
We are helping refugees on the ground in 10 of 13 Czech regions
As a member of the consortium of NGOs working with migrants in the Czech Republic, People in Need is coordinating with other aid organisations. "We also meet regularly with the management of the National Assistance Centre for Ukrainians, participate in many working groups, and provide information from the field," said Jan Černý, Director of Social Integration Programmes.
From the beginning, we have been highlighting the importance of the early integration of refugees. We call on the Czech government to manage the refugee crisis centrally and unambiguously. We stand by our proposal for a solution to the distribution of refugees in the country, primarily according to the availability of free school capacity, followed by housing and job opportunities. We are finalising our longer-term support plan for new arrivals. We are also continuously updating information in Ukrainian in an article that has become the most visited piece on our website.
We are monitoring the situation in the help centres
Social work and counselling are provided to Ukrainians by our field teams in 10 regions of the Czech Republic. We are working in help centres and participating in creating new community and integration sites in various cities. We continue to monitor the situation in mass hostels and deal with all situations of refugees, mostly women with children and the elderly. We provide food aid, clothing, interpreting, help with the necessary documents, humanitarian benefits, and finding housing, work, or medical care.
We focus on the most vulnerable refugees, for example, those with health problems or other special needs. We are involved in helping expectant and new Ukrainian mothers, most of whom are not oriented and not employable. We also organised a club for Ukrainian seniors in Beroun. We organise and coordinate refugee help centres in Pilsen, Klatovy, Tachov, and Karlovy Vary, and we are opening another one next week in Olomouc.
Since the beginning of the war, we have employed 40 Ukrainians to work with refugees, including refugees and Ukrainian citizens living in the Czech Republic for more extended periods of time. We employed another 16 Ukrainians on a short-term basis. They found employment as adaptation group workers, psychologist/crisis workers, field workers, field social workers, translators or helpline counsellors.
On our Ukrainian helpline, we are dealing with dozens of cases every day
The Ukrainian helpline team (+420 770 600 800) continues to handle dozens of calls for help on weekdays. Most requests relate to housing. However, we also deal with queries related to the interpretation of Lex Ukraine, various residential complications, medical conditions, and frequently births and deaths. Refugees turn to us when looking for jobs and for help understanding the complicated processes for humanitarian benefits.
We have supported nearly 100 aid organisations
Across the country, we continue to support organisations and initiatives working with refugees and coordinating aid. With the money we have raised, we have s supported over 90 organisations with more than €1,9 million. Among other things, we have focused on supporting affordable healthcare and, in some locations, adaptation groups for Ukrainian children. We have also supported university students so that they do not have to interrupt their studies. Additionally, we cooperate with the Hlavák Initiative and other similar organisations helping to address the situation of Roma refugees from Ukraine.
We are supporting education and teaching staff
In addition to the activities outlined above, we also focus on alleviating the educational and social decline of secondary school students who may not start school in the Czech Republic and are at risk of dropping out. We are considering opening a high school club in the Pilsen region. Our education programme Varianty is currently organising a roundtable on the topic of the inclusion of Ukrainian pupils in secondary schools with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Education, regions, and Meta.
We expect high demand for assistance for preschool children who may not be able to enrol in kindergartens or playgroups and whose mothers will be unable to work as a result. We also support integration activities for all age groups, helping them improve their Czech language skills. We are also preparing suburban summer camps for Ukrainian children and holiday Czech language tutoring.
Across the education and social services, we are helping with school enrolment. In some cases, we also help arrange educational and psychological counselling. In cooperation with the VMLYR agency, we have prepared a new part of the Life in Czech campaign, focussing on school from the perspective of Ukrainian children. We are creating more educational materials, videos, and courses on the topic of migration.
To support the education of Ukrainian children, we are recruiting people in some of our branches, and we are supportive of the involvement of Ukrainian educators in the Czech education system. In cooperation with the Czech Centre Kyiv and Educasoft, we continue to develop an online course to help them with professional Czech. We are also working to support Czech teachers who will teach pupils from Ukraine.
ASSISTANCE IN MOLDOVA
Aid worth €234 000
In Moldova, we have long provided financial support to families who have taken in refugees from Ukraine. Moldovan families have provided Ukrainians with a roof over their heads. In total, we have supported several thousand families in the north and south of the country. In June, we continued to register and verify families for the second phase of this assistance.
In cooperation with the local organisation Rethink, we are launching a helpline to provide psychosocial support in Ukrainian and Russian to those most in need. We will also provide information about their rights and access to social and health services in Moldova. At the same time, we continue to support 17 organisations from the local non-profit sector involved in helping refugees.
People in Need’s assistance to people in Ukraine is possible thanks to donations from the public and private sector to PIN Ukraine Emergency Appeal, financial contributions from Alliance2015, CARE, Stichting Vluchteling, King Baudouin Foundation, Avast Endowment Fund – Stichting Avast and partnership with international non-governmental organizations and institutional donors European Union, Ukraine Humanitarian Fund, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic or World Food Programme.
