New home, new start: UNHCR supports displaced families with house repairs in rural communities
New home, new start: UNHCR supports displaced families with house repairs in rural communities
Larysa and Anatolii found a safe home in central Ukraine after fleeing from their occupied town in Donetsk region.
Rose bushes and grapevines travelled almost 900 kilometres with Larysa and her husband Anatolii from their hometown of Selydove in Donetsk region to the quiet village of Shvaikivka in Zhytomyr region, central Ukraine.
When the full-scale Russian invasion forced them to flee more than a year ago, they could only take essential belongings. Later, their friends sent the plants — cherished reminders of their home, now under Russian occupation — which the couple carefully replanted in their new garden.
“For two years, we lived under constant shelling, but when one day the ceiling in our apartment collapsed after a hit, it was a like a warning bell. We were lucky to escape because a month later, nobody dared to drive there anymore,” the woman recalls.
In their 60s, the couple decided to start over in the same area where Larysa’s late parents once lived. They managed to buy an old house with a small plot of land — but it was far from habitable.
“There was a terrible smell in the house and a lot of mold. The floorboards were rotten, but the biggest challenge was not having a sewage system and water facilities inside the house. Only when these were installed, and we had water running and a shower inside the house, I started to feel human again.”
After UNHCR and its NGO partner Caritas helped to improve water and sanitation facilities in their house, Larysa and Anatolii were able to feel comfort again.
It was UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partner Caritas who helped Larysa and her husband to improve water and sanitation conditions in the house. This was done through a programme aiming to repair or upgrade rural houses that displaced people have either bought or rent for the medium or the long-term in their new communities – as a way to support more durable housing solutions for internally displaced families.
The programme was launched in 2023 and now covers 13 regions of Ukraine. So far, over 1,380 families have been supported with this assistance, enabling them to start anew and rebuild their lives in their houses with better living conditions.
The repairs range from installing water, heating and sewage systems to window and roof replacement, as in the case of Dina and Vasyl, another couple of pensioners who fled from Kramatorsk in Donetsk region when the Russian invasion started in 2022. The family now rents a small house in the village of Sofiivka in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.
“When we arrived, there was nothing in the house – no gas, no electricity, no water. The first thing we did was repair the old pot-bellied stove. The gas line had been cut, so in summer we cook on an electric stove. The house had been empty for a long time, and rain kept leaking through the tiles. After UNHCR and Caritas completely replaced the roof with new slate and installed new doors, it doesn’t leak anymore - and that already feels like a big thing.”
The reparation of their leaking roof with UNHCR’s support now guarantees that Dina and Vasyl will be warm and comfortable in their house.
Their apartment in Kramatorsk was badly damaged by shelling, and they are uncertain whether they will ever be able to return. Sofiivka has become their new home, where they are slowly rebuilding a sense of normalcy.
“We plant everything ourselves in our small garden, though this year the harvest was poor - everything froze. I knit when I have time, and we even got some ducks,” Dina smiles. “I often bake and share with neighbours. We help and support one another.”
Both Dina and Larysa with their husbands fled from Donetsk region that saw one of the most intense hostilities during the invasion with many cities and villages lying in ruins. Despite finding safety and stability in their new communities, the pain of losing their homes and their former lives remains ever-present.
“I like everything in my new place, but my soul is still there, at home. I stopped enjoying holidays. We used to have big gathering with our relatives and neighbors. That life is gone,” Larysa says.
