Emergency Aid in Ukraine: Continued Samaritan support for IDPs
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For more than one year, ASB Germany and the Ukrainian Samaritans from SSU have been supporting internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine, who had to flee their home region. The project, which is a collaboration with the German Foreign Ministry, is now being extended.
Each day, several thousand people receive medical support or are supplied with warm clothing and bed linen for the winter. ASB distributed 500 tons of groceries and hygiene articles to IDPs last year. At the same time, the Samaritans offered trainings in care, first aid and health for the IDPs. These trainings are conceptualised as vocational qualifications to help their chances on the labour market.
Volunteers are a key component of the project
Numerous volunteers support the Samaritans in packaging and distributing food and giving advice to the recipients of aid. Many volunteers are IDPs themselves: “When the situation in Donetsk escalated and our street was bombarded, I fled to Kiev with my children.”, says Marina, now a Samaritan volunteer. “Once I arrived, I quickly received aid from the Samaritans in Kiev. I am very thankful for that. Now, I volunteer to help people in situations similar to the one I was in before.”
Aid is being extended
After the end of the project in February, the German Foreign Ministry decided to fund the continuation of the activities for another 24 months. “Now we can even extend our aid and cover additional regions such as Chernihiv and the government-controlled areas in Luhansk and Donetsk.” reports project coordinator Michael Schnatz.
Vacations for refugee children
Besides the expansion of the current activities, ASB will organise youth vacations in the coming summer months. They are an opportunity for refugee children to, at least in part, recover from the terrible events they witnessed when fleeing and the dire situation their families find themselves in.
Ever since 2014, when the Maidan protests escalated into violence, the Samaritans from ASB and SSU have been rendering emergency aid to internally displaced persons from the Eastern Ukrainian war zones and Russian-annexed Crimea. Today, according to the United Nations, 1,6 million Ukranians are registered as IDPs – they had to flee from their home regions due to bombardement, collapse of infrastructure and the chaos of war.