Returning childhood to a Zaporizhzhia community shelter

Returning childhood to a Zaporizhzhia community shelter

With 22% of the population being internally displaced and over 5000 of them living in community shelters, the city of Zaporizhzhia is in dire need of accommodation. Those that had to leave everything behind are not picky, but the need for improvements is felt in most of the temporary accommodations housing internally displaced people with…

From Kherson to Kherson through Estonia: Yulia’s story

From Kherson to Kherson through Estonia: Yulia’s story

Yulia’s past two and half years have been particularly difficult, even for Ukrainian standards. She endured occupation, then their house in Oleshky was flooded, and they lost almost all of their belongings. Finally, she was able to flee with her family through 3 countries before returning to Kherson oblast, only a couple of kilometres from…

Cash support eases pain for elderly displaced

Cash support eases pain for elderly displaced

Kamianske – a regional town in central Ukraine – has become a refuge for internally displaced people from Eastern Ukraine. Often leaving behind everything, displaced people are forced to rebuild their lives from scratch. Fleeing occupied Horlivka, 72-year-old Halyna and her two grandchildren, Oleksiy and Misha continue to struggle to make ends meet. Rent, growing…

Once displaced, but at peace in a newfound home

Once displaced, but at peace in a newfound home

Holding 8-month-old Mykyta in her arms in the courtyard of a residential building, Yulia’s vision for the future is considerably better now than a couple months before. Displaced to Kamianske, Dnipropetrovs’k Oblast from her native Volnovakha, she applied for cash assistance provided by the Ukraine Response Consortium-partner Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA). Her lack of savings…

Vision regained

Vision regained

“Oh, Angel, embrace us with your wings, Mother of God, bless all with your compassion, In our families, let there be love and esteem, To friends, always pay enough attention.  Give us lasting health and contentment, Provide us with well-being, peace and happiness, Of our heart, make a residence of kindness.”  This is what Lydia…