In Ukraine, we are supplying water to tens of thousands of people. In the Czech Republic, we are running counselling and assistance centres for refugees
Published: May 5, 2022 Reading time: 7 minutesPeople in Need continues to supply water to people in Ukraine. We have equipped more collective centres for internally displaced Ukrainians. We have also dispatched our fourteenth train of humanitarian aid from the Czech Republic, and we are continuing to distribute materials by truck to conflict-affected areas. To help us be effective, we now have over 150 employees working on the ground in Ukraine.
We continue running counselling and assistance centres for Ukrainians in the Czech Republic. We are organising adaptation courses for Ukrainian children and supporting their mental health. We are operating in half of the regions of the Czech Republic. Additionally, we have supported other aid organisations in the Czech Republic with EUR 1 760 000 million in grants for work in areas we do not cover ourselves.
So far, we have provided EUR 17.1 million worth of aid to victims of the war in Ukraine. Through our SOS Ukraine Emergency Appeal collection, ordinary people supported us with EUR 70 mil. Here's the latest detailed summary of our aid in Ukraine:
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> We are supplying water to tens of thousands of people in eastern Ukraine
> We are distributing cash to nearly 6,000 people in western Ukraine
> Trucks and trains with aid travel to Dnipro and Lviv
> IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC WE HELP WITH HOUSING, WORK AND HEALTH COMPLICATIONS
> We are recruiting new field workers to work with refugees
> The number of people calling the Ukrainian Help Line is rising
> We organize Czech language courses and prepare adaptation courses for children
WE ARE SUPPLYING WATER TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN EASTERN UKRAINE
According to UNICEF, at least 1.4 million people in Ukraine are currently without access to safe water. This month, we provided water to 18.500 people in Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts. In Mykolaiv Oblast alone, we distributed water to 11,000 people. We are distributing 10 litres of water per person to those in need. We also distributed almost 13,000 water containers for 9,000 people.
"One of the biggest problems in eastern Ukraine is that many people have been left without access to drinking water because of the fighting. So, we are trying to cover this basic need as much as possible," says Petr Drbohlav, People in Need's Director for the Eastern Partnership and the Balkans.
Last week we delivered 10 tonnes of food to the Donetsk region. This was distributed to 700 people. Further deliveries of food, water, and hygiene kits will continue in the coming days and weeks.
IN WESTERN UKRAINE, WE ARE DISTRIBUTING CASH TO NEARLY 6,000 PEOPLE
In western Ukraine, we have started distributing and registering cash assistance. In the last two weeks, we have distributed the equivalent of $74 USD per person to 5,908 people. This amount will be paid once a month for three months. Distributing money to specific people and families has worked well in past conflicts, and this option is effective in places where the market works.
"This method allows people to decide what the money is best used for. We then prevent people from selling what they don't need below cost and allowing them to choose what to buy," says Petr Drbohlav, Director for the Eastern Partnership countries at People in Need
We have equipped collective centres in the Ternopil Oblast in the past week with 300 bedding sets. These included bedding, towels and mattresses. We also delivered 500 bedding sets to centres in the Lviv region and 300 sets of hygiene products. Additionally, we equipped collective centres with ten washing machines and one-hundred kettles.
Aid trucks and trains to Dnipro and Lviv
This week our fourteenth aid train was dispatched to Dnipro. The train contained food and hygiene packages worth EUR 390 000. Over the past two weeks, trucks have also been heading to Dnipro and Lviv. Trucks with pillows and blankets went to the Lviv Oblast, and we brought more hygiene packages to the Dnipro Oblast.
IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, WE ARE HELPING WITH HOUSING, WE ARE ALSO supporting UKRAINIANS WHO SUFFER WITH HEALTH COMPLICATIONS
Help for new arrivals from Ukraine in the Czech Republic is ongoing. PIN is providing more individualised social assistance, counselling, and material and financial support or help with the education of children, Czech and Ukrainian teachers. We are working on developing longer-term housing, and we are supporting Czech towns and villages in working towards systemic changes regarding helping Ukrainians.
We are updating data and analysing the distribution of refugees across the Czech Republic. Where the number of Ukrainian refugees is the highest, we propose relocations based on housing availability elsewhere. We are also looking at job opportunities and school capacity. We specifically consider the economic situation in the poorest localities not to burden them further.
We are recruiting new field workers
On Monday, we opened a social counselling centre in Karlovy Vary, where our ten staff are working in cooperation with the maternity centre and the city to support Ukrainians. We are running counselling services for Ukrainians, for example, in our Beroun centre. PIN’s Olomouc branch plans to open a community centre to foster interactions between Ukrainians and Czechs.
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In Kladno, our field workers are now working at the Labour Office and helping, for example, at the charity Šatník, which provides food and material aid. In Rakovník, our debt counsellors are working as support for volunteers who help the refugees to conduct necessary administrative tasks. Finally, we are currently looking to recruit a social worker in Plzeň, a team member in Mladá Boleslav, and another for our branch in Olomouc.
The number of people calling the Ukrainian Helpline is on the rise
The counselling centre also includes a Ukrainian Helpline, where both Ukrainian and Czech counsellors are available at +420 770 600 800 on weekdays from 9 am to 10 pm. On average, they receive 50 enquiries per day, with the more extensive ones being processed by our support team for several days. We work with field workers and volunteers in many regions of the Czech Republic. The questions are most often about housing, work, or dealing with health complications.
"Some requests take up to fourteen days to resolve. We start by arranging transportation, then we look for volunteers to interpret, then we arrange for food aid, and then we come to the conclusion that the situation requires through the help of our field workers," says Vlastimila Sachrová, the head of the PIN Ukraine hotline.
We organise Czech language courses and prepare adaptation courses for children
So far, we have supported more than sixty organisations with funds, these are often other non-profit organisations, food banks, etc. The material and financial aid we provide are used to pay for travel expenses for refugees, translations, and other services.
We are currently preparing or opening adaptation groups in Kladno, Koněprusi, Bílina, Karlovy Vary, Rokycany and Pilsen. The aim of these groups is to facilitate the adaptation and socialisation of Ukrainian children (from three to fifteen years old) to the Czech environment — to support them in acquiring the basics of the Czech language, to prepare them for entering Czech schools, and to support their mental health.
Teachers, classroom assistants or parents of Ukrainian students can use the new free online course: Jana's Story, about challenging behaviour of students to help them understand their children's behaviour after traumatic or psychologically challenging events. The course can be found on the Together for Better Schools website.
We help children and students everywhere with enrollment in kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. In Uničov, we support a group of Ukrainian students whose families can no longer manage to contribute financially because of the war.
Our branches in Karlovy Vary, Central Bohemia and Olomouc have organised Czech language courses, which are in great demand among refugees. "All of the Czech language courses that have started in Beroun are completely full. We have registered another 40 applicants, so we are considering financial support for the language school to open at least one more course," notes Kateřina Hůlová Director of PIN, Central Bohemia.
We are continuously looking for new colleagues to work with Ukrainian children. For example, in the Olomouc region or in Bílina we are looking for a worker for an adaptation group of Ukrainian children aged 3 to 6, who will work in tandem with a Ukrainian teacher.
WE ARE STILL HELPING IN MOLDOVA
In neighbouring Moldova, we continue to support families who have taken in Ukrainian refugees with cash grants. Across Moldova, we will gradually provide financial support to 3,000 families who have taken in refugees. This disbursement of aid is very efficient, and therefore we manage to distribute it to the most people. Registrations take place over the phone but also at local town halls. We mainly help the elderly who cannot manage online registration on their own and need our assistance. We also continue to support the local non-profit sector. In total, we have supported 17 organisations working with 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.
