Ukraine Crisis Response

by World Vision
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Ukraine Crisis Response
Ukraine Crisis Response
Ukraine Crisis Response

Project Report | Jul 11, 2022
Ukraine Crisis Response - 100 days

By Bernadette Martin | Engagement Manager

Response Overview

Europe is experiencing the largest refugee and humanitarian crisis on its soil since World War II. Families are being torn apart, and children are suffering the worst of all. In Ukraine itself, children and their families are facing extreme hardships. They are at constant risk of injury or death and living amongst ongoing armed conflict, whilst shielding from bombardments and artillery fire. They are surviving in basements, whilst struggling with shortages in food, water, healthcare, and power.

World Vision has been responding since the onset of the crisis. Our response began in Romania where World Vision has been operating for over 30 years. We initially met basic needs on the border, providing sustenance and connecting refugees to essential services, such as transport, shelter, and healthcare. From early March, World Vision pivoted to building a more complex multi-country, multi-sector response to meet the varying needs of refugees, delivering life-saving assistance to meet basic needs, creating and supporting protective environments, and facilitating access to information and basic services.

In the first 100 days of our response, we have established offices and projects in Moldova and Ukraine, with a focus on delivering life-saving assistance to meet the basic and protection needs of refugees, internally displaced people, and host community members in Romania, Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine.

We have rapidly scaled up our own projects to implement directly - delivering essential aid to hospitals and host communities in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, working with World Food Programme to hire a team and deliver cash to host communities in Moldova, and creating new programs giving children safe environments to learn and play in Romania and Georgia.

However, above all this has been a response about partnering, and we are incredibly proud of the wide range of partners we are working with, from coalitions of social workers in Romania, to large international NGOs in Ukraine. In total we have vetted, and are either partnering or planning to work with, 24 national NGOs in Ukraine, Romania and Moldova, 13 government institutions, and 10 international NGOs.

The fluid nature of this crisis, and the scale of the need means over the past 100 days we have frequently needed to adapt and flex our response to meet daily challenges, while also scaling our response to meet the needs of millions. The scale of the numbers being displaced, the damage to infrastructure, and the harm being done to people and places are things we have witnessed in conflicts before. We know that the needs will be long-lasting and complex, with many opportunities to support emerging.

We call on all sides to promote peace, asking and praying that diplomatic solutions can be found in order to halt a worsening humanitarian crisis. Children deserve our very best attempts to keep peace. Our hearts and sincere prayers go out to them and their families.

Impact story - Supporting shelters in Iasi, the crossroads from Siret and Moldova

“We didn’t want to leave, of course. We hoped that the victory would be fast.”

Evhen*, 17, brought his mother, Alla, to Romania from Ukraine in hopes of finding a safe place for her to escape the conflict. Their home city of Dnipro saw a handful of bombings before the two fled.

Evhen made the decision to leave out of concern for his mother’s health. Alla has several health problems, and has
previously had a stroke. Evhen feared the stress from the conflict might make her health deteriorate further. 

“I was really worried about her because her mental state was also getting bad. Everyone’s mental state in Ukraine [is] getting bad right now,” Evhen says. “But I was really worrying for my mother, so I decided we had to go.”

Their final night in Dnipro was terrifying for Alla. “There were sirens…we were staying in the basement because the sirens were non-stop.” Alla and Evhen travelled by car from Dnipro to Moldova. After crossing the border, volunteer drivers brought them
to the Egros Refugee Transit Centre in Iasi, Romania, where World Vision is helping Ukrainian refugees.

Though many around the globe were shocked when conflict broke out in February, Evhen and his friends were not. Seeing conflict within Ukraine’s borders was a part of his childhood, so much so that he understood war to be a part of what makes Ukraine.

“You know, many people are thinking that war in our country began the 24 of February. War in our country has been going on for eight years. It came back in 2014.” he explains. “I’ve grown up with war. I was nine when war started. I guess I’m lucky that I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes for a big part of my life.”

He is the only person from his friend group who has made the journey out of Ukraine as a refugee, and he worries for the safety of his friends and extended family who chose to stay. Alla feels the same, and encourages their loved ones back in Ukraine to make the journey across the border.

“We are always calling people back home and telling them…how good it is here” she says through tears. “There is a feeling that we’ve left them behind.”

Evhen leaves behind not just his friends, but a blossoming career and education. As a second-year university student, he was studying law and psychology and was performing as a theatre actor outside of class. The day the conflict broke out in Ukraine, Evhen was meant to sign a modelling contract. Instead of a career, the arts quickly became a way for Evhen to escape the tragedies happening outside his city.

“Leading up to the conflict, there was tension in the air. The theatre that I perform in was my safe space where I could be myself and not think about those things.” 

Evhen’s goal now is to find his mother a safe place to stay in Europe, and then return to Ukraine. He remains hopeful for what the future might bring—for both himself and Ukraine.

“I see my future back in Ukraine. As long as Ukraine exists, my future exists for me.” 

*Evhen’s name has been changed to protect him and keep him safe.

World Vision's Child-Friendly Space
World Vision's Child-Friendly Space
Educating volunteers at the refugee shelters
Educating volunteers at the refugee shelters

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Organization Information

World Vision

Location: Federal Way, WA - USA
Website:
Project Leader:
Bernadette Martin
Federal Way , WA United States

Funded Project!

Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.
   

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