UKRAINE
Thanks to funds from our public fundraising collection and the support of institutional donors, and in collaboration with several local partners, we have been helping people in Ukraine since 2014.
In 2022, we expanded our reach and started an intensive cooperation with Myrne Nebo Kharkiv, an organization that operates a number of activities in one of the worst war-affected areas, the Kharkiv region. It operates public kitchens and delivers hot meals, especially to de-occupied villages with poorer food availability, damaged by fighting (Izjum) or where fighting is still ongoing (Kupyansk), and it has set up children's centres with safety shelters where school and leisure activities for children and their parents take place. It also focuses on psychosocial support and mental health care for people traumatised by the war. Last but not least, it organises awareness-raising on unexploded ordnance management and mine clearance.
Our other partner organisation, House of Mercy, cares for elderly and vulnerable homeless people, especially in and around Kiev. Together we provide them with shelter, meals and comprehensive social assistance. This takes various forms – assistance with the processing of necessary documents, accompaniment to doctors and help with obtaining medical care, or returning clients to their families.
Although far from the fighting, Uzhhorod city, near the Slovak border, still has many internally displaced refugees who have fled to safety as a result of the war. Eleonora Kulčar and her organisation Blaho have many years of experience in supporting mainly Roma children in socially excluded localities. Since March 2022, she has been running a sheltered community housing facility for internally displaced refugees. It organises tutoring and leisure activities for children. People can stay in the accommodation centre as long as they need and can also use legal and psychological services.
Since 2014, we have been working with Father's House, an organization that cares for orphans and homeless children in the Kiev area. It runs a children's home and supports foster families. It provides education, legal, social and psychological support for them. It cooperates with the local social welfare department on an aftercare programme for children who can return from Father's House to their biological parents.