UNHCR provides insulation kits to help displaced Ukrainian families stay warm

The freezing temperatures in Ukraine during the winter months make an already dire humanitarian situation even worse for many displaced families. 
 

Like Iryna, 60, and her husband Anatolii, 72, originally from the village of Prysheb in Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine, and now internally displaced in Ukraine since 2022. 
 

Iryna fled her village in February 2022, while her husband stayed at first to take care of the house. However, the situation became very difficult, as their village was occupied, and Anatolii managed to leave in April through a humanitarian corridor and join his wife.
 

The couple now stays in Petropil, elsewhere in the region, where they have managed to find a house to rent with their scarce resources. This provides them a roof over the head, but last winter was very challenging, Iryna recalls:
 

“We didn’t have heating last winter, and we are afraid that this winter will be the same.”

Due to the destruction of a big portion of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have suffered from power outages and lack of heating, which can prove life threatening during cold wintertime. 
 

With the support of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has been distributing Rapid Thermal Kits and heaters to more than 6,400 people before winter to help them survive and stay warm during the cold season. 
 

UNHCR’s Rapid Thermal Kits include items which are commonly used by people in Ukraine to improve home insulation easily and cost-efficiently. This includes reflective insulation screens, transparent plastic sheets for window repairs, foam draft blockers, and building tape.
 

Iryna and Anatolii received their insulation kit before the cold set in, and UNHCR’s partner Proliska helped the couple to install it properly. 
 

“We use firewood to make the house warmer, and of course now, with insulated windows, it is better this winter,” says Iryna.