Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees

by Peace Winds Japan
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees
Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees

Project Report | Jul 22, 2022
Smart class and diaper distribution: Widening the scope of our activities for Ukrainian refugees

By Robert Gilhooly | Project participant

Aid delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau
Aid delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau

Five months have passed since Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) began its humanitarian aid project aimed at supporting the Ukrainian refugees who have fled their country following Russia’s invasion. Each day the news continues to show the horrors of this unjust war, and each day PWJ staff on the ground are witnessing the many ways in which it is affecting the Ukrainian people.

At the start of the conflict in February, PWJ dispatched staff to Poland to respond to the crisis, coordinating with local partner organizations in Ukraine to help provide much-needed assistance. Since then it has also set up operations in Moldova and in the Ukraine capital, Kyiv. 

New developments in PWJ’s operations in Moldova include the delivery of supplies to various refugee accommodation centres (RACs), including one set up inside a vocational college in Criuleni. It also includes the continuation of medical assistance in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, where PWJ has dispatched doctors and nurses and set up a clinic inside the local cinema, known as Cinema RAC. It is also working with local partners to extend facilities for refugees inside the building, including the conversion of a large room into a common room where refugees can hang out, away from their cramped living and sleeping quarters. PWJ will provide a large flat screen TV and other amenities for this room.

Cinema RAC is also a distribution center for a variety of supplies, which are distributed daily to over 600 families from Ukraine that have been displaced during the war. PWJ has been continuously providing such supplies to Cinema RAC since the beginning of the Russian invasion. It has recently added children’s diapers to those supplies after aid groups that had previously provided baby items withdrew their support. 

Without this distribution, I wouldn’t know how to get diapers for my children tomorrow,” said Alina, who evacuated from Mariupol with her two children, and is one of hundreds who line up at the centre to receive supplies and other assistance. “It is a great help.”

Working with a local partner, PWJ has also set up a “smart classroom” for young Ukrainian refugees, who have found it not only difficult, but stressful, also, to study in the confines of their living quarters. PWJ has supplied 20 laptop computers for the classroom, which was set up inside the technical university in the Moldovan capital. By connecting these computers to the university’s wi-fi, refugee children are able to connect and study with their teachers back in Ukraine. One of the children commented that in the panic that ensued when she and her family evacuated from their home in Ukraine, she did not have the time, or luxury, to pack her computer, and this, plus the crowded conditions in her RAC, means she was falling behind in her studies. She was now looking forward to being able to reconvening her education. 

Also at the university, PWJ held an event on June 1 to commemorate World Children’s Day. Currently, there are about 60 displaced Ukrainian families, including about 80 children, who are being accommodated insidefour RACs set up inside the university’s dormitories.

The outdoor activities that were organized during the event, which was also attended by more than 100 Moldovan schoolchildren, included tug-of-war, dancing with character mascots, as well as enjoying sharingsnacks, such as popcorn and cotton candy. They also had fun on trampolines, go-carts, and other playground equipment that was set up for the event.

Such events have been organized due to concerns that opportunities for children to play are few and far betweenBoth children and their parents have also suffered from stress due to the prolonged evacuation and the cramped conditions in the RACs.

Olesia Shevchenko, the wife of the ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova, who also attended the event, said she was very grateful for PWJ’s “energetic support” both in this even and others PWJ has organized at RACs. “It is very important to organize such an event that can cheer up these children,” she said.

Meanwhile, PWJ doctors and other staff have been visiting hospitals in Chernihiv, one of the Ukrainian cities most heavily affected by the war. The No.2 hospital we visited was badly damaged by Russia’s indiscriminate missiles, both structurally and also due to the loss of some lifesaving medical apparatus. PWJ is looking at ways in which it can help, to replace such apparatus, as well as dozens of window units that were irreparably damaged by the blasts. It is also looking at ways to provide medical support on the ground, including giving assistance to overworked hospital technicians. With Ukraine experiencing some shortages of medical supplies PWJ also looked into ways it can assist with procurement, visiting one clinic that has had some success in this area, but needs more support.

PWJ doctors and staff also visited a center in the Oblast that works with children with disabilities, with the intention of working with the center as it tries to regain some sense of normality amid the conflict. One of the projects that has been implemented at the center is dog therapy sessions, where children are encouraged to interact with dogs, stroking, playing and walking them as a part of their education at the facility.

Dogs are also a part of another project in which PWJ is involved in Chernihiv – pet food distribution. On the outskirts of the city, close to an elementary school that was gutted by the Russian missiles, people arrived in droves to receive pet food for the hundreds of abandoned pets they continue to care for, One elderly lady said she is caring for more than 20 cats that had become strays. “Without this distribution service, I wouldn’t know how to feed them,” she said. 

PWJ is striving to continue to support such projects in the Ukraine and Moldova. But we cannot do it on our own. We rely on your support. Please continue to help us support the millions of Ukrainian people and their pets that have been devastated by this war. Thank you.

Aid delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau
Aid delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau
Diaper delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau
Diaper delivery, Cinema RAC, Chisinau
Smart Class, Chisinau
Smart Class, Chisinau
Smart class, Chisinau
Smart class, Chisinau
World Children's Day, Chisinau
World Children's Day, Chisinau
Pet Food Delivery, Chernihiv
Pet Food Delivery, Chernihiv
Pet food distribution, Chernihiv
Pet food distribution, Chernihiv
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Mar 25, 2022
PEACE WINDS JAPAN PROVIDING ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES

By Jangwoo Lee | Project coordinator

Mar 4, 2022
1st Report: Supporting refugees arriving in Poland

By Peace Winds Japan | Project Leader

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Organization Information

Peace Winds Japan

Location: Jinsekikogen-cho, Hiroshima Prefecture - Japan
Website:
Project Leader:
Hiroshi Kunita
Jinsekikogen-cho , Hiroshima Prefecture Japan

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