Disaster Response Ukraine Project #55676

You Can Support Those in Crisis Fleeing Ukraine

Project Report | Jun 28, 2024
Assisting Refugees Fleeing the Crisis in Ukraine

By Ehab Elsawaf | Senior Major Gifts Officer, ActionAid USA

Hello,

Thank you for your support of this project.

As the conflict in Ukraine persists, ActionAid is working with our partners to address the urgent needs of refugees and protect marginalized communities. Over the past few years, we have collaborated with nearly 40 women, minority, and youth-led organizations across Ukraine and neighboring countries, serving over 2 million people.

At ActionAid, we know that disasters, humanitarian crises, and conflicts have a disproportionate effect on already-vulnerable populations. That's why, at the onset, we do things differently. Our emergency response cultivates women's leadership and shifts power to local communities and organizations.

Our efforts have ensured that Ukranian refugees continue to receive essential support, including food, shelter, and protection. To date, ActionAid has:

Supported over 2 million people across Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, and Romania.
Provided safe spaces for more than 380,000 survivors of gender-based violence.
Offered mental health support for girls and women affected by the conflict in Ukraine.
Supported 1.4 million people to access human trafficking prevention resources.
Delivered essential relief supplies (food, water, medicine, hygiene, and dignity packs) to over 700,000 people.

Your contributions make it possible for us to continue responding to crises like this around the world.Thank you for your unwavering support. Together, we are providing hope and assistance to those in desperate need.

Thank you!

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Mar 14, 2024
Fighting for a Generation's Dream

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

Dear Supporter,

Two years since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, we are reminded of the incredible resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people. We are especially in awe of the youth whose work at the forefront of rebuilding their communities has been buoyed by the generous support of people like you.

Since February 2022, at least 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes, living as refugees in neighboring countries or internally displaced within Ukraine. There have been over 30,000 casualties with at least 600 accounts in January 2024, alone.

The impact of Russia’s aggression extends beyond displacement and casualty, where 14.6 million Ukrainians – 40% of the country’s population – live in dire need of humanitarian assistance. One-third of Ukrainian households have reported at least one member experiencing mental health problems, and another 10 million people are at risk of acute stress conditions. Education has been disrupted, opportunities are scarce, and the psychological impact of the war is profound, especially on young people.

Despite these challenges, women and young people are taking on new roles in Ukranian society as volunteers and first responders. But their leadership is still not fully recognized, and they lack robust support to participate meaningfully in decision-making.

That’s where ActionAid comes in.

Over the past two years, ActionAid has partnered with nearly 40 women, minority, and youth-led organizations across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova, supporting over 2 million people.

One of our partner organizations, STAN, works with internally displaced Ukrainian youth. They seek to equip young people with the tools to cope with their trauma and make their voices heard in decision-makng spaces.

Yuliya, an education coordinator with STAN (pictured above), talks about the importance of prioritizing the psychosocial needs of over-looked groups, like women and young people. She shares:

“Young people are rarely heard, by adults, by people who have power. What we are doing is important. The interests of women, young people, and vulnerable groups can be denied by programs. All programs that are reconstructing infrastructure, buildings, and cities, should go together with social programs and connect people. It’s not only the physical buildings that were destroyed, but social contacts [relationships, support groups] were destroyed too.”

Past support from people like you has helped our local partners continue to provide members of marginalized groups with the resources they need to restore their physical and mental well-being as they endure this crisis.

The ongoing importance of this work inspires us to continue doing what we do. Two years later, our commitment to the people of Ukraine remains. We will continue working with affected communities in need of support and protection, so that they can lead more dignified lives amidst crisis.

Thank you for being a part of our ActionAid community.

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Nov 22, 2023
Maryna's Story: The case for psychological support during the war on Ukraine

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

Maryna by the market she works at.

As a supporter of our ongoing work in Ukraine, we want to share with you the story of Maryna, a young woman who has received psychological support through ActionAid's partner, Insight NGO, in Kyiv.

ActionAid has 40 partnerships across 4 countries (Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine) supporting more than 1 million people. Our response inside Ukraine started in August 2022 where we are working with a range of grassroots-based feminist and young-people-led organisations and networks inside Ukraine.

Part of their work is key to supporting immediate humanitarian needs such as gender-based violence prevention and support, psychological and legal support, and the provision of shelter, food, and medicines. Additionally, they are supporting people to access their rights throughout this crisis.

As of October 2022, 550,000 people have accessed key information and 78,000 people have accessed protection. A further 100,000 people have received essential supplies including food assistance and 10,500 people have received multipurpose cash.

ActionAid’s partner, Insight, is supporting 2,500 households across Ukraine. We are working with households where members self-identify as LGBTQI+ people, or women from often marginalised groups (single mothers, young mothers, elderly women and women with disabilities).

Maryna has been a recipient of Insight's services, and now works at a shop in Kyiv. Listen to her tell her story below:

“I was doing quite well, until the 24th of February. I was advancing my career quite well and I was building a new life, new acquaintances, new impressions, new travels. I mean, I can say I lived my life, until the 24th of February. For many, perhaps, Ukrainian citizens, it was very unexpected to us. It was also unexpected for me.”

But having woken up on the 24th of February, well, even not from some explosion blasts, I mean just to go to drink some water, I checked my phone, and I saw multiple missed calls from my parents. I saw many notifications in different messengers, and I didn’t understand what was going on. I immediately started calling my parents back and while I was calling them, I was thinking that something was going on... Probably, something really important. There were so many messages in work chats, from my friends and acquaintances.

And my mom told me that, “Maryna, the war started.” I told her “What war? With whom?” And then she replied, “We are attacked by Russia.”

Then, it was complicated because nobody knew what to do and how everything was going to unfold around us. Well, the first thing that came to my mind was to fill up the car, withdraw some cash. And despite it was half past six, there were huge lines at petrol stations, traffic jams as people tried to leave Kyiv, there were enormous lines to get to ATMs and I understood that I am simply losing precious time at that moment in lines, and I would lose more petrol waiting in lines than I would get.

And on the 25th of February... I had to face that I... that I had quite a lot of unresolved psychological issues since 2014 [the Ukrainian Revolution].

After that, I started recalling things back in Donetsk, the first airport assault that had happened in May 2014. It was just overwhelming. I couldn’t tell the difference between the memories and reality around me.

My friends, my close ones, they became even closer for me. And we always tried to help each other as much as we could, we we’re keeping in touch even if to ask how they were getting on, and so on... all of that was very helpful.

Well, now, it is more or less even because if it wasn’t for psychotherapy, it would be very hard. And there were moments when I understood that I simply can’t bare it. I was exhausted physically, mentally, and I was really worried about it."

Your donations to this project helps more marginalized people, like Maryna, recieve the support that they deserve to cope with the ongoing trauma, loss, and grief that she is experiencing through the invasion of her country.

Thank you for your support at this critical time.

She learned about the war from texts on Feb. 24th.

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