International Forum Created to Coordinate Humanitarian Work in Ukraine
Representatives of eleven international aid organisations operating in Ukraine met in Budapest at the initiative of Hungarian Interchurch Aid. At the conference – held at the headquarters of HIA – members of ACT Alliance, a group of church-based aid organisations – gathered to share their experiences of the first four months of the war and discuss new modalities and directions for their cooperation. As a closing act the convened organisations officially created the ACT Ukraine Forum in order to coordinate humanitarian work and the strategies of member organisations engaged in the war-torn country.
The delegations arriving from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Hungary and the United States all agreed that the dynamically changing needs in Ukraine require particularly close cooperation between the members of the new forum. It has also been agreed upon that due to Hungarian Interchurch Aid’s more than 20 years of experience in the country, the forum will be led by HIA in the coming 6 months.
In March, ACT Alliance – world’s second largest humanitarian organisation – has launched a $21.5 million appeal to support Ukrainians in need, and Hungarian Interchurch Aid has been one of the leading members in the umbrella organisation’s humanitarian response since the beginning. In the past 4 months, HIA has helped 110,000 people both in Hungary and Ukraine.
