STORIES FROM UKRAINE: How you have given them hope
STORIES FROM UKRAINE: How you have given them hope
The conflict in Ukraine has caused the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis since World War II. Since 24 February, the country has witnessed death and suffering on a dramatic scale, leaving millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
As of 13 May, there are now approximately 14 million people that have been forced to flee their home in Ukraine. Most of those fleeing are women and children.
Families are being torn apart, people are fleeing in fear and distress, and volunteers are stepping up.
Here are glimpses of their stories and how your support has helped them cope with the challenges brought by the war.
“We had worn black all these days. We decided it was time to be bright and positive… Thank goodness we have each other."
ANTONINA
Sisters Antonina and Natasha arrived in Slovakia without a plan. They stayed a couple of nights with kind strangers in Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, where they acquired their vibrant outfits in a secondhand shop – pink jacket for Natasha, orange anorak and lime green fleece for Antonina.
Widowed before the war, the sisters left grown-up children and grandchildren behind. The first thing Antonina does is phone one of her sons back in Ukraine, after which she breaks down in tears.
At the border, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its NGO partners are on hand to offer information that will help the refugees orient themselves. “Our task is to help them find their feet as quickly as possible,” says Tala Budziszewski, a UNHCR staffer on assignment as part of the emergency response.
“Our fridge is empty, so we need to buy food. Some people have tried to give us food, but I feel ashamed. I want to buy it myself.”
ROZALIA
Rozalia lacks the cash to buy what she and her son need until they can register for the identification documents that will give them access to Poland’s social security system.
UNHCR’s cash assistance programme aims to help refugees like Rozalia cover their most urgent and immediate needs until they can find work or receive social support. It has the added benefit of feeding back into the local economy when refugees buy the things they need, or even pay rent.
With your help, this programme was made possible. It has reached more than 9,500 refugees since the Warsaw centre opened on 21 March. It will roll out in other cities across Poland and it is being rolled out in Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and in parts of Ukraine, where millions have been internally displaced and many urgently need help to cover their basic needs.
- Read more here: Cash offers a lifeline to refugees from Ukraine arriving in Poland
- Watch this video: Ukraine: How does cash assistance empower refugees?
SOLOMIA, 18 years old.
Solomia is a refugee from Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine. She is a volunteer at Rzeszow train station in south-eastern Poland where she helps others arriving from Ukraine.
An indoor market in the city has been equipped with 500 beds for refugees, including families, fleeing the war in Ukraine. There is a kitchen which serves hot meals and a playroom for children.
“I am from an orphanage myself, so I felt I must do everything possible to help people who – like myself many years ago – needed support.”
RYMMA
In late February, when Rymma Mytrak saw reports of families fleeing heavy fighting in other parts of Ukraine and moving west in search of safety, she decided to act.
Mytrak decided to open a shelter for internally displaced people (IDPs) in her village Velykyi Bereznyi, close to Ukraine’s western border with Slovakia. With no property of her own, she shared her idea on social media and within days the village had rallied to convert an unused storage facility into a hostel for 80 people
UNHCR, with the help of donors and partners, recently provided the shelter with thermal blankets to help keep residents warm as nighttime temperatures drop close to freezing.
“I have a scientific brain, I like to structure everything. When I came to pick a few pieces of clothes from this centre, I started to make neat piles… the centre administration noticed it and invited me to help them as a volunteer.”
OKSANA
Oksana is professor of public finance at the University of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine in Irpin, northern Ukraine. She has relocated to Vyshkovo in the Zakarpattia region in the west of the country where she helps to sort second hand clothes donated for internally displaced people. She still teaches her students online using a donated computer.
SVETA and NIKOLAI.
Sveta Makarenko and her 18-month-old son Nikolai were among more than 200 refugees from Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine who arrived by bus at the Palanca crossing on Moldova’s border with Ukraine.
UNHCR, Moldovan officials, and partner organisations provided support, information, and transportation for them.
"There was no time to pack, we had to run. We only took two backpacks with documents and the most important things. We had to leave our animals… they ran away when the bombs hit and we couldn't find them."
ELENA
Elena and her three children had to flee Ukraine very suddenly, when their house was hit by shelling, shattering all the windows in the house, and blowing off the roof. Their two cats and five dogs ran away and they had to leave them behind.
They were accommodated in the MoldExpo centre in Chisinau, Moldova, where a UNHCR warehouse with stocks of tents, blankets, solar lanterns, hygiene kits, and other non-food items is located in case of new arrivals coming from Ukraine.