Aid valuing 10M EUR has already been sent to victims of war in Ukraine

We are sending aid by car and by train

AID WORTH 6 MILLION EURO

Thanks to the generosity of ordinary Czech citizens and companies who have graciously donated to the Ukraine emergency appeal, all the trains we send are full of humanitarian material totaling 6 million EUR. Despite the ongoing fighting, we manage to deliver humanitarian aid from the Czech Republic both by car and by train. As of March 29th, 10 trains have arrived in Ukraine containing hygiene supplies, non-perishable nourishment, baby food, mattresses, disinfectant sprays, sleeping bags and other essential items. Trains with material aid either head to Kyiv or to Dnipro, from where they continue on to other affected areas.

"We have a huge sense of responsibility now. Not only to our donors, but to other organizations because we feel that we are paving the way for how things should be handled in Ukraine, for example, in terms of the transportation of humanitarian aid," says Šimon Pánek, director of People in Need.

From Dnipro, humanitarian aid is then distributed by local partner organizations, such as R2P. People from these organization load the aid into vans that then transport it even further to other towns and cities, like Kharkiv or Zaporozhye, or entire regions like Donetsk and Luhansk. We also support deliveries made by smaller local volunteers to even more remote villages or parts of the country.

Due to the ongoing fighting, water storage has been a major challenge for those in the east of Ukraine. For this reason, we have already transported 20 trucks full of aid (largely consisting of 50,000+ jerry cans and water containers, totaling approximately 600,000 EUR) to Lviv and cities further east. 

Ukraine emergency appeal:

We distribute material and financial aid to equip collective centers

AID WORTH 1.44 MILLION EURO

We support collective centers in the west which house people seeking refuge and fleeing the fighting in other parts of the country. These centers need a lot of support because they have often been neglected for several years prior to the invasion and are not fully equipped to accommodate such large numbers of people. According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 2.5 million IDPs have fled to western Ukraine because of the invasion. For this reason, it is no wonder that these collective centers are under enormous strain and require large amounts of material aid. As a result, we are working hard to get these internal refugee centers ready with basic accommodation items, such as kitchen appliances, bedding, and mattresses. Last week, we helped equip two more collective centers in the country and this week five more IDP centers will open and need to receive materials.

In the eastern part of the country, we focus on the distribution of food, water, and other hygiene supplies. In areas where the water infrastructure has been almost entirely destroyed, we deliver fresh water. We distribute this water in six-liter bottles to local people on the ground and we recently delivered two trucks full of potable water to war-affected areas in the Donetsk region. We regularly bring clean water in cisterns to various villages around the country and when we can, we also equip those areas with their own water tanks so that people have a place to store it.

In the Donetsk region, we also distribute cash to 981 of the most vulnerable people who require help purchasing necessary items. Each person can receive up to 2,200 UAH (68 euros) over three months. We will continue to offer this kind support in the coming months, as well.

Supporting local organizations in Ukraine

Since the invasion in February, we have financially supported 90 smaller NGOs inside Ukraine that are helping local people on the ground. We have provided 1 million EUR to these organizations, so far. They buy and distributing food kits, water, baby food and equipment for bomb shelters. We are also financially supporting organizations that equip collective centers for IDPs.

PIN works to support Ukrainian civil society and an independent media that focuses on human rights violations, physical protection, online safety, and accurate reporting of the events occurring in Ukraine. We also support our long-term partners who are operating in other countries and who, like us, are helping Ukrainian activists and refugees. 

Helping in Ukraine, the Czech Republic and neighbouring countries

Date: Mar 29, 2022   Place: Ukraine, Czechia, neighbouring countries   Author: Člověk v tísni/People in Need   

More

In the Czech Republic, we help refugees and financially support organizations

AID WORTH 1.4 MILLION EURO

More than 300,000 refugees have already crossed the borders of the Czech Republic. They are mostly women and children and, while some are heading to join friends and relatives, the vast majority have no idea where to go.

Because of this, we deal with hundreds of individual requests for help every day. We have personnel present in half of the regions in the Czech Republic and we are financially present across the entire country. Our staff help operate regional assistance centers for Ukrainians and we are continuously mapping the terrain and recruiting staff who speak Ukrainian. As a member of the consortium of NGOs working with migrants, People in Need coordinates with other organizations and we support the consortium's website pomahejukrajine.cz and the Czech digital site stojimezaukrajinou.cz. Both sites offer important services which are used by thousands of professionals across the Czech Republic to help refugee families.

"In Prague we are trying to support the activities of non-governmental, non-profit organizations. We are also monitoring the situation and we are looking for various opportunities to help in schools and to cooperate with children's services and other related organizations around the country," says Václav Kučera, director of the Prague branch of People in Need.

"We are the first information point in the regional assistance center. We provide Ukrainian citizens with the information they need. We work with a network of social services that understand how to work with refugees and we identify needs for assistance in smaller villages in the regions around Czechia by phone and via field work," says Lukáš Průcha, director of the branch in the Liberec region.

Counselling for refugees is also available in Karlovy Vary and Sokolov. "We provide social counselling services to refugees, and we have hired field staff. We financially support the children's center in the Karlovy Vary assistance center and are providing translators on a needs basis. We are working to put together a group of reputable Ukrainian psychologists who would be able to provide psychological counselling services to their compatriots. At the same time, we are trying to secure funds for positions of psychological counselors in children’s groups,” adds Jan Němeček, the director of the Karlovy Vary branch.

We propose changes to the refugee accommodation system

People in Need offers its humanitarian experience on war crises, refugee waves and disaster recovery, knowledge of the Czech education system, as well expertise on social and employment policies. We comment on legislation and make concrete proposals for building systems so that they can cope with the reception of hundreds of thousands of new arrivals in housing, education and on the labor market.

"The government's decision relating to the amount of the subsidies given to private homeowners receiving refugees is not sufficiently motivating, according to the available data. Without long-term accommodation, refugee camps will be created. These are not a viable solution, especially if there are other options. Instead, we should adapt municipal buildings that are suitable for housing. Additionally, we should begin the construction of simple but decent modular houses," says Daniel Hůle, an expert on social inclusion and debt.

Ukrainian Help Lines address everything from accommodation to health care

We distribute leaflets in Ukrainian at the Regional Help Centers with information about our Ukrainian Help Line. Ukrainian citizens can reach our counsellors at +420 770 600 800 seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. A multilingual team assists with dozens of requests, and we are continuously recruiting new colleagues who receive rapid training on how to help effectively. Our team provides assistance on a variety of topics, from questions about accommodation, where to get food and clothing, and how to arrange finances to health care, employment, school enrolment and help with reading and understanding text in Czech.

We support the work of other non-profit organizations

In response to more specific needs, we use collection money to help solve issues that are not currently being addressed. We financially support dozens of organizations, such as food banks and child support centers that do not yet have funding for adaptation activities.

"We get all sorts of requests for help and appeals for additional funding. Today, for example, we were contacted by an organization for people with autism who said that they now have seventy-two new Ukrainian clients in the last three weeks alone," says Katarína Pleskot Kollárová, project and media coordinator at People in Need. So far, we have raised 1.2 million EUR in one-off grants to help strengthen capacity for these sorts of organizations.

Educating children from Ukraine

Refugee children are beginning to attend school. In Karlovy Vary, for example, we have started teaching these children Czech as a foreign language. We have also started lending computers to students who are interested in working with us and who, thanks to this support, have become more integrated locally while also continuing to participate in distance learning back home. Since we have extensive experience tutoring children in the Czech Republic, both in-person and online, we are continuously expanding our database of bilingual teachers who can help with the tutoring of Ukrainian schoolchildren. If you’d like to learn more, PIN has put together an overview of high quality and interesting teaching materials for working with children from Ukraine on our website doucujte.cz.

Importantly, we also continue with crisis supervision for both teachers and teaching assistants. Currently, we’ve conducted 148 reviews. "It’s important to understand how to work with this target group at risk – children coming from Ukraine – so that teachers can teach them effectively when they arrive. We share examples of good practice, and we also provide information about follow-up services," says Alexandra Petrů, the methodologist for school assistants. Lucie Kundra, project coordinator, also adds that her team is working on developing an online course for teachers working with children coping with stress and traumatic life experiences who might display difficult and/or disruptive behaviors as a result.

We want to involve Ukrainian teachers in education as soon as possible. "We are putting together an online course teaching Czech as a second language with the aim of providing incoming Ukrainian teachers with basic knowledge of professional Czech. This will enable them to participate in school trainings, extracurricular activities, leisure activities, and adaptation groups,” says Tomáš Habart, head of Varianty educational services.

We're working on more material about Russian propaganda

We have also produced a wide range of materials for teachers, pupils and students on topics related to the war in Ukraine, such as migration, media manipulation and propaganda. Specifically, we’ve:

• made lessons on Russian propaganda, available for all students
• are currently working on the creation of two new lessons on propaganda and information warfare, which will include concrete examples of disinformation and media manipulation
• have launched a live Q&A show for Studio JSNS, where students can ask questions about the war in Ukraine

We support countries who share a border with war-torn Ukraine

AID WORTH 120, 000 EURO

Financial and material support is also needed in Ukraine’s neighboring countries where Ukrainians seek refuge. We are currently actively helping in Moldova and Slovakia.

In Slovakia, we support the activities of People in Need Slovakia, who are currently equipping a warehouse on the Ukrainian side of the border with material aid. We’ve aided by delivering items like washing machines, dryers, boilers, and showers to these centers. From that warehouse, these necessary items will go on to be distributed to collective centers in 15 villages across the Transcarpathia region.

In Moldova, nearly 400,000 people have arrived in the last month alone. Since the beginning of the conflict, we have supported eight Moldovan NGOs who provide material aid to those who need it most. We have also distributed financial aid worth 45,800 EUR amongst various organizations ranging from those helping Ukrainian child cancer patients to those fighting human rights violations. We support Moldovan psychosocial services and have helped provide food and other necessities to 750 Ukrainian refugees. Finally, we support several Romani organizations here in the Czech Republic. These organizations focus on helping Ukrainian refugees who are ethnically Roma who also need to flee Ukraine because of violence but, due to racial prejudice and social barriers, require additional assistance.

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.

* cover photo: Distribution in Sumy.