Help in Ukraine, e-magazine #1

UKRAINE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE

Impressum

E-MAGAZINE

Authors: Help Ukraine PR team

Photo: Help Ukraine project team Olha Opilat, Svitlana Dymitrenko CONTACT

Web: www.help-ev.de Email: info@help-ev.de

Introduction

Dear

readers,

You have the first issue of the Help Maga zine, which was made as a result of urgent action aimed at shedding light on the cur rent state of extreme consequences of the conflict in Ukraine. Through the Help e-mag azine we want to share all of our activities in one place with our partners, donors and readers.

On the night of 24 February 2022 Rus sia launched the invasion of Ukraine. Rocket attacks and artillery fire are shak ing the whole country, ground forc es are advancing. The population fears for their lives, safety, and their future.

Help supports the people in Ukraine and refugees in Moldova. Through local partner organisations we are currently distributing vital relief supplies, offering medical assis tance and providing information on safe spaces and protective measures.

The activities of Help in Ukraine will be pre sented via articles, reports, and interviews, as well as our support and perseverance to help the most vulnerable groups. Our longterm support and the principle of help, and self-help, give results from the very found ing of the organisation.

Help is here, with its partners/ donors, to provide initial support in empowering peo ple and helping with the change and strate gies for a better, more humane future.

There are currently nearly 14 million people forced from their homes, 8 million internally displaced and 5,9 million refugees, according

to the OCHA and IOM reports (May 10, 2022). The situation is dire in Ukraine, a large num ber of people have been left without mon etary resources, food, and medical care. Given the circumstances which are changing rapidly, and the movement of the population, we must be ready to react swiftly and directly.

The first issue of the Help e-magazine show cases a complete picture about the imple mented activities, ongoing projects, real stories from the field, and the donors. Our goal is to reach out and help as many peo ple in Ukraine as possible.

All the refugees and IDPs have one thing in common: they want peace and to return to their homes as soon as possible. “You need to worry about your life first of all, the rest will come later. The main thing is to be alive, healthy, as far as possible and necessary to get away from there before something hap pens. And from there we can solve problems as they arise. I want to go home, of course.

I want to go home very much. Everything is very upsetting.” Tatyana from Popasna.

This situation requires large humanitarian assistance from donors and internation al organisations, and we as Help are ready to react and support with your aid Ukraine people in need.

Help Ukraine PR team

Help Worldwide

Help - Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe e.V. is a German non-governmental relief organisation duly reg istered with the courts of law in Bonn in 1981. In the wake of the war in Afghanistan and there by causing a refugee crisis, members of Parlia ment of all parties represented in the German Parliament and other distinguished personali ties founded Help. Having provided humanitar ian assistance for Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan, Help has enlarged its relief assistance to numerous countries. The organisation Help provides assistance based on the real needs regardless of the race, creed or nationality of the recipient.

Help today

Help today has been active worldwide in emer gency assistance as well as in rehabilitation and development projects. Whenever possible we are linking emergency aid with self-help. One of the basic aims of Help is to encourage the ef forts made by the communities affected by the catastrophes and misery in order to have them improve their living circumstances themselves. Therefore, Help is closely cooperating with indig enous partners and non-governmental organisa tions, knowing that these people are best famil iar with local conditions, culture and needs. With its projects Help is not only covering immediate humanitarian needs, but also fighting the caus es which resulted in humanitarian catastrophes thus aiming at durable solutions. Trying to work most effectively, Help is coordinating its project activities with all national and international or ganisations.

PROJECT EXAMPLES OF HELP’S WORK WORLDWIDE:

 Rehabilitation and reconstruction pro grammes in the sectors of health, housing, water and sanitation and other infra-struc ture in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzego vina, India, Iraq, Iran, Chechnya, Serbia, Montenegro

 Reconstruction of schools and kinder gartens in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia

 Humanitarian demining and mine-awareness programmes in Afghan istan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad and Iraq

 Humanitarian assistance for victims affected by the conflicts in Chechnya and Iraq

 Emergency assistance for earthquake victims in El Salvador, India and Iran

 Establishment of mobile clinics offer ing primary health services to the earth quake-affected rural population in the area of Gujarat India



Reconstruction of schools, voluntary trainings and establishment of micro-cred it systems in Sayla district India

 Self-help programmes and shelter re pair of private homes and collective cen tres in Montenegro

 Food aid, distribution of seeds and sup port of medical posts in Zimbabwe

 Food aid, hygiene parcels, hot meals, medical supplies, multipurpose cash assis tance for the internally displaced people in Ukraine, food and medicines for livestock.

Funding

In realisation of projects and programmes Help counts on public donations. On the other hand, very important forms of funding are governmen tal, European and third parties funds. Some of donors are: 

The German Foreign Office 

The German Ministry for Economic Coop eration and Development 

The European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) 

The European Agency for Reconstruction 

Other Directorates General of the Euro pean Commission 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 

The Swedish Government 

The Netherlands Government 

The British Government 

The Caritas Austria 

The Franciscans Congregation Cologne 

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Financial control

According to the legal status of Help, we are obliged to undergo an annual audit carried out by independent external auditors. Being a mem ber of the German fundraising community Help voluntarily undergoes an annual audit by the Central Federal Institute for Social Issues (DZI) Berlin, based on the transparency of financial management and the use of earmarked funds. A particular certificate is awarded and published on an annual basis confirming the reliability of our organisation.

More on Helps work worldwide on www.help-ev.de

Our donors in Ukraine

The donors have always supported and offered a lot of help by providing necessary knowledge and material support. Today, in the times we live in and facing the challenges of the world, help is needed even more.

Our help is directed towards Ukraine with thanks to do nations, with the help of local partner organisations we manage to provide vital relief supplies, offering medi cal assistance and information on safe spaces and pro tective measures.

The German Federal Foreign Office stands for solidarity and humanity not only in its belief but in its actions through the humanitarian assistance provided for the Ukrainian people. Thanks to that support, Help provides tens of thousands of families of internally displaced people, especially women, with food, hygiene, hotline, shelter, medical supplies, and psycho social support to overcome the hardship of forceful displacement and invasion. Link that leads to the German Foreign Office website is available on their logo.

In the long-standing partnership between NAK-karitativ and Help many catastrophes have been alleviated and facilitated. It is no different in the response to the humanitari an catastrophe caused by the war in Ukraine, where NAK-karitativ supported Help and local partners in providing food, hygiene, shelter, medical supplies, and psychosocial support to families of internally displaced in Ukraine. More about NAK-karitative and its work is available by clicking on their logo.

As a member of Germany’s Relief Coalition (Aktion Deutschland Hilft) for twenty years, and with its support, Help provides hot meals, food and hygiene parcels, multi-purpose cash assistance and medical supplies to displaced and vulnerable people, as well as food and medicine for livestock of Ukrainian farmers. More on Germany’s Relief Coalition, an alli ance of over 20 German relief organisations that sustainably provide emergency assistance is available on the link (click on the logo).

Lions Club International’s motto We serve: Ge meinsam Gutes Tun, for over 100 years, aligns and communicates with Help’s mission of help ing those in need. Thanks to the support of Li ons, Help delivers food and hygiene to tens of thousands of families in need in Ukraine. More on Lions Club International is available by clicking on their logo.

The DOHLE Foundation instantly joined the Help’s pool of donors to alleviate the severe conditions of forcefully displaced families from their homes in Ukraine. Thanks to DOHLE’s support, Help provides food packages, as well as greatly needed hygiene parcels to the inter nally displaced across Ukraine.

More on the DOHLE Foundation can be found by clicking on their logo.

Thanks to the KBF support, Help can provide urgently to conflict-affected people of Ukraine. More on the King Baudouin Foundation, mis sion, vision and values, encouragement of effective philanthropy, and contribution to building a better society is available on the link (click on the logo)

No matter how young or old, how big or small, anyone can contribute and make that differ ence in the world. Among Help’s donors, Bees and Trees makes that difference, thanks to which vulnerable women, children and the el derly of Ukraine receive food and hygiene, and can feel hopeful.

More on this courageous and determined foundation can be found by clicking on their logo.

Thanks to donor support, emergency assistance is being provided to nearly 30,000 families in Ukraine with Help that keeps giving –and thus makes a difference.

Support our work in Ukraine: Donate now!

Help in Ukraine

Help is an internationally active aid organisation with more than 40 years of experience in humani tarian aid and development assis tance.

was development-oriented. Assis tance was meant to provide peo ple with the tools and machines to help themselves sustainably and improve their living. Many people of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, Government-controlled areas, were about to receive the equipment to start their businesses and earn money with their own hands. And learn many new skills to become more self-reliant. Instead, Help in Ukraine, had to swiftly react and reorganise to provide emergency assistance to the

The principle inscribed in the very name of the organisation “Hilfe zur selbsthilfe” – assistance towards self-reliance, or simply help for the self-help, is an everyday remind er of a vision - a world in which all people can live a self-determined life with dignity and security.

In 2021, Help project in Ukraine

An estimated 8 million people have been internally displaced within the country. This represents 17% or one in six people in the country. Of these, 63% are women.

growing number of internally dis placed, and refugees trying to reach the borders and leave the horrors of airstrikes and shelling. Since the beginning of the inva sion, the Help team in Ukraine has grown in number and delivered food and hygiene to those in need, conflict-affected women, children, elderly, and vulnerable people who had to leave their destroyed homes. With only two rapid response pro jects two weeks after the conflict, Help reached nearly five thousand people and helped with food, hy giene, hot meals, and multipurpose cash assistance. Together with the local partners’ Help is dedicated to supporting and helping those in need to become self-reliant and sustainable.

An estimated 8 million people have been internally displaced within the country. This represents 17% or one in six people in the country. Of these, 63% are women. More than half of IDPs have reported challeng es accessing food. While 15% want to return home soon, 8% have ex perienced damage to their homes. The rapid influx of displaced peo ple in western Ukraine and neigh

bouring countries is overwhelming response capacities in those areas. (Source: UNOCHA, IOM, REACH, UNHCR).

That is why Help in Ukraine is grate ful to its donors and local and inter national partners for the joint ef forts in providing assistance to the vulnerable people of Ukraine.

Active Projects

Help emergency aid in Ukraine

It is intended to ensure the survival of the people affected - quickly, effectively and sustainably.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Help has launched two quick response projects to provide emergency assistance throughout war-affected Ukraine regions. The projects are supported by the local partners NGO “Shyrokyi Step” and “Gener ation Z”. The main aim of the projects are to pro vide and distribute food and hygiene parcels, hot meals, and multipurpose cash assistance. Both on going projects are furthermore supported by Aktion Deutschland Hilft. Down the road, Help is imple menting two more projects to provide urgent sup port to the war-affected population in Ukraine. The first project, Emergency Relief and Protection Ser vices to the Conflict-affected Population in Ukraine, is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, Help, and NAK-karitativ. The second, Emergency Re lief and Protection Services to the Conflict-affected Population in Ukraine, by Aktion Deutschland Hilft. Both of these Help projects are backed by the local partners Ukrainian Agri Council and their co-partner SAVEUA.

The Help organisation has been actively working in the eastern parts of Ukraine since 2021 to provide new and better perspectives, and living conditions for all the displaced people and other os tracised groups and their families. Due to Russia’s in vasion, and the ongoing war, the organisation is now fully devoting attention to emergency aid through out the whole country.

Help has at the moment four ongoing pro jects supported through different donors and local partners.

Emergency Assistance to Conflict – Affected Persons in Ukraine – The project includes distri bution of food and hygienic parcels, hot meals, and food delivery to as many families as possible within the available allocated funds. This project is for the people from Donetsk oblast, Zaporizhia oblast, Lu hansk oblast, and other regions as well which are under heavy shelling and on the brink of a human itarian catastrophe. The local organisation NGO “Shyrokyi Step” from Zaporizhia oblast helps with the distribution of food, hygiene parcels, and hot meals. Currently immediate assistance is provided to around 4240 IDPs, from which 800 receive food parcels, 560 receive hygienic parcels, and 2880 re ceive hot meals.

In the spirit of enabling people to help them selves in the future and to overcome the ongoing crisis, we provide help that keeps giving – and thus makes a difference.

Our next project is the Provision of Emergency In-kind and Cash Assistance to Satisfy Basic Needs of the War-affected Population in Ukraine, in cooperation with the local partner NGO “Genera tion Z”. The project is aimed to support 100 women headed HH via satisfying basic needs and hygiene products. (One hundred “mobile parcels” - shopping strollers fully packed with food (oil, flour, salt, pasta, canned and dry pea soup) and hygiene (shampoo, soap, tissues, dishwashing and laundry detergents) were delivered to women and elderly). The sec ond part focuses on distributing multipurpose cash assistance (MPC) for 200 people in order to cover medicine, rent, clothes, food, etc. Since the start of the project, 21.03.2022, until mid of April 200 IDPs received cash assistance.

https://www.help-ev.de/spenden/online-spenden

Distribution of “100 trolley bags” for 100 women and the elderly was successfully released on 23rd April 2022.

The following project is Emergency Relief and Protection Services to the Con flict-affected Population in Ukraine, and the Coordination Centre is in Uman, the distribu tion of emergency aid is covered in the fol lowing regions: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson. The activities include: dis tribution of 10,000 food parcels and hygiene parcels, medical supplies, and also provision of food and medicine for livestock. The pro ject activities will focus on providing basic humanitarian supplies and covering basic inkind assistance.

The subsequent project is Emer gency Relief and Protection Services to the Conflict-affected Population in Ukraine, sup ported by the national partner SAVEUA and Ukrainian Agri Council, based in Uman. The

main goal of the project is to deliver protec tion services made up of the following five components: an emergency hotline (call cen tre) for crucial information within Ukraine, within a government-controlled area, tem porary shelter/rent assistance, 10,000 food and hygienic parcels will be distributed to IDPs, and affected households which cannot access basic necessities, medical supplies, Psychosocial support to IDPS, both online and face-to-face, in organised shelters and centres, either individually or in groups. The psychologists will be available for further in dividual consultations if needed. These ses sions are intended as first-aid support and not full-time therapy. We are able to contribute with joint actions and efforts to improve the livelihood of the war-affected people in the regions of Ukraine. The idea is to continue gathering resources and helping those in need.

Interview

HOPE FOR BETTER TOMORROW

Help started an economic empowerment project in Ukraine in 2021, to help the people of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Government-controlled areas. End of February 2022, a harsh reality struck the people of Ukraine and the Help team. The Russian invasion caused hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees to escape their homes to other parts of Ukraine, the EU countries and beyond.

The Help’s pilot project in Ukraine, intended for social inclusion through socio-economic empowerment of vul nerable and internally displaced people in Ukraine. That means securing tools and machines for the unemployed to start a small business activity and provide for their families with regular income.

Yet, by the end of February 2022, everything changed. In stead of development, the assistance had to be changed to emergency relief.

Help had to respond quickly to the growing needs of refu gees and displaced. Nearly two weeks after the beginning

of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Help provided emer gency assistance through continued cooperation with the local partners.

On Saturday, 23 April 2022, just before Easter, with the local partners Help distributed food, and hygiene parcels to 100 women, internally displaced, with children, and the elderly, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

The distribution was a part of the emergency relief project funded by the Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH). Previous ly, within the same project, they finished the provision of multipurpose cash assistance (MPC) for 200 people.

Galyna Posvaliuk, Ukraine

What assessment did you do and how?

Galyna: The first thing in project man agement is an assessment of the needs to define the goals. We assessed the sit uation by talking to the authorities and institutions. We visited shelters and col lective centres and talked to the people in need.

We have an extensive network of people in the local communities, and we are con nected to the multiple clusters organised as workgroups within the international humanitarian community in Ukraine.

The urgent necessities were of course food and hygiene. We also added the multipurpose cash (MPC) assistance as people fled their homes under shelling, bear-handed with only personal docu ments.

The cash assistance was only a bit of a

challenge for us. We previously did not work with such type of assistance. But we quickly managed to make it work. The assistance was distributed via bank accounts according to the international humanitarian procedures established for that type of assistance. People in need, in ternally displaced, applied and we swiftly collected applications above the project goal that was set to 200 people. As many fled in February, they needed clothes, but also food, medicine, and rent.

People move from the affected regions and flee throughout the country and abroad. How many collective centres are there and what are their capacities?

Galyna: People first went to Dnipro. It is a big centre. The next step is the western part of Ukraine. Some people are looking for ways to go to Poland, Germany, Ro mania, and other countries.

We have a lot of collective centres and shelters, a few of them are organised in some pleasant hotels, some in sports halls, schools, and dormitories. Managers of these centres lack washing machines, dishwashers, showers… Sometimes, es pecially in the beginning, they were just as out of bed.

Even people who only stay for two to three days in those shelters and centres need a bed, to shower, and to eat.

These centres need supplies of food and hygiene constantly!

How do you cope with the great responsibility and how do you react to people’s destinies and stories?

Galyna: Thanks to my mother’s upbring ing and my profession as a teacher, I am also a partway psychologist. So, I can un derstand people, work under pressure, and endure stress. The only thing that is difficult for me is that I cannot help every person. For example, I cannot help my mother because I am so far away from her. I could not manage to have her with me. This is the hardest thing that I was not able to do, evacuate her.

But I can talk to people. I can hug them. I can explain that I understand how they feel as I am also internally displaced now. Of course, one cannot always understand every person’s situation and I try not to be so emotional, and I feel people’s pain.

It is important to be calm because peo ple must have faith in me. My confidence and my strength show them that I can help.

That’s why I am staying strong. But some times I too need a piece of chocolate. What story resonated with you the most?

Galyna: When people from Bucha moved to Donetsk (oblast), which is not a safe place, they were applying for cash assis tance. I was really surprised. I asked them if they were going to move somewhere? And they responded that it was their last resort.

There was also a lady who wrote to us back when she got the money thanking us for the support and saying that she can finally buy some fruit for her kids.

Kamianske, 23rd April 2022. One of the goals was to provide 100 women with basic needs in food and hygiene prod ucts. What did that look like?

Galyna: We had to fulfil the needs of 100 women for food and hygiene products for one month. Make it practical in logis tical terms but also efficient. Imagine a woman trying to pick up a box of 20 kilo grams with food and hygiene items!

That is why we decided to acquire shop ping strollers so that women can easily carry them and use them later, as they are constantly on the move. During the procurement, the supplier gave us a dis count and thermoses with each stroller.

So, together with our team members, volunteers, and friends, we loaded one hundred “mobile parcels” – shopping

strollers with food (oil, flour, salt, pasta, canned food, and dry pea soup) and hy giene (shampoo, soap, tissues, dishwash ing, and laundry detergents).

We used a Telegram community chan nel for communication. It is a commu nity with a thousand women organised around the administration centre for the internally displaced. Within two hours we had 186 applications.

In the selection process, we used a range of categories - single mothers, mothers of large families, mothers with children with disabilities, elderly, and unemployed citizens.

We also decided to cover different peo ple from different cities and regions. Most women are from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, one from Kyiv, one from Dnipropetrovsk, and several women from Kharkiv and Zaporizhia.

Is this sufficient and for how long?

Galyna: We predict that for women with one or two children, it could cover a max imum of three weeks. In three weeks these 100 women will need this food again. They cannot find jobs and buy

food for their babies.

So, it requires large humanitarian assis tance from donors and international or ganisations.

Ukraine is the biggest country in the EU and used to be a breadbasket of Europe with our fields of wheat and grain. Now, we need help.

A month ago, our president made an order that men who will engage in agri culture and food production do not go to the army. Because they are our food production soldiers and they will battle to feed Ukrainians.

And we also think about rebuilding our country even during wartime.

Galyna Posvaliuk has three degrees in education. She worked as a teach er, a trainer, and a local community manager and believes in the empowerment of youth and women. She is determined to stop her life as an internally displaced person and go back home to rebuild her motherland to gether with Help and the local partners.

The path of displaced

Stories of women who escaped the war- torn regions and who arrived in Kamianske, with their families, prove just how hard the real situation is, and what the internally displaced people go through, also, how important Help, donators, and humanitarian organisation are to them. The situation is getting worse and worse. Aid only covers the basic needs for food and medical help. More effort needs to be put in to make living conditions bearable and more humane in the war- torn regions. These are tear jerking stories. Unfortunately, this is the reality for the peo ple of Ukraine in the 21st century.

ulia is from Mariupol. Before the war she worked as a medical worker at a Mariupol mu nicipal enterprise, and she went to work until the invasion started, February 26, 2022. She left Mariupol after a shelling of her apartment. Her apartment was later completely destroyed. She took her baby and mother and left in a half-running car. Shortly after she left for Berdyansk from Drama theater, it was completely destroyed. The road to Bardy ansk was dangerous and full of bullets, convoys, soldiers, and terror. In Berdyansk she was welcomed and taken care of as much as possible in given circumstances.

Y

“I couldn’t have done it without the help of these humanitarian organisations, of course.”

Yulia

Marina is a displaced person from the Donetsk oblast, the city of Mirnograd. She went to Kamianske, where she was welcomed with open arms, the people helped a lot. For that she is very grateful.

„What we all need now is peace, love, and to return to our homes.“

Marina

“Thanks so much to the volunteers who walked us through the process and gave us a glimmer of hope. I am certain that with their kindness this hell will be more bearable.“

Tatyana is from Popasna, in Luhansk whose home was destroyed. Her neighbor’s mother was killed and her neighbor injured. The shrapnel shat tered her son’s car, who came to evacuate her on March 25, 2022.

Distressed, Tatyana speaks about destruction of her hometown, about over three thousand people still hiding in basements waiting for the horror to end. Before the war she had a job, she had a home. Now, there is no job and no home. She’s been forcefully displaced, coming a long way to live in an apart ment with her brother and his wife, and 88-year old mother.

Tatyana is grateful for Help assistance through the parcels for internally dis placed people.

Tatyana

“I want to say thank you very much to all the volunteers, to all the organisations that help people. When we were in our native city, we helped displaced people and it did not seem to be very important, we just did it as needed.”

Yulia is from Mirnograd, Donetsk oblast. Before the war she was an elementary school teacher. She helped a volunteer organisation where they mainly gave out infor mation and humanitarian aid. She escaped to Kamianske and helped her people get organised, find information, and their families. She explains that people need basic hygiene, food, and comfort. Now she understands what a helping hand means to those in need. She hopes the war will end soon so she can return home.

Yulia

„It was very nice when we saw that there is such an initiative and coming here helped us. Even though we did not expect anything. The parcels are exactly what we needed right now. Thank you for your help.“

Olena is from Donetsk oblast, she worked in Kiev. When everything started she left Dobropilia with her mother and moved to Kamianske. She explained that a lot of people left their houses and took only what little they could from their homes. She was so satisfied with the initiative “100 trolley bags for 100 women’’.

Olena