emmaus

EMERGENCY IN UKRAINE

The project “Emergency in Ukraine” consists in the provision of humanitarian aid to support people in the Kharkiv region during the war.

Project start date: February 24, 2022

Strategic partner: AVSI Foundation

Sponsors: Regione Emilia-Romagna, Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World Food Program (WFP), Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Pulte Family Foundation

Partners: Kharkiv Regional Council, Institute of Theological Sciences of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, “Emaus” center, NGO “Social Center You Too”.

Context

At 5.30 a.m. on February 24, 2022, when the first missiles attacked Kharkiv, Emmaus’ life radically changed. Emmaus’ team had been preparing in advance for the evacuation of their beneficiaries: already in January some of them were sent to Italy to live in host families and the others were moved to safer cities in Ukraine. Only three guys stayed in Kharkiv (they didn’t agree to move earlier because of their jobs) and they were evacuated by an Italian volunteer as soon as the war started.

Moreover, from the beginning of February we started to store food and personal hygiene products in one of our colleague’s basements: this allowed us to welcome many people that needed a temporary safe shelter in the first days of the war.

Right after making sure that all our guys were safe, our team started to look for ways to help those who need it the most. At the beginning of March we joined forces with AVSI, who had already been our partner for a long time, and together we started to provide assistance to Kharkiv’s citizens and to those who needed to be evacuated.

Main strategic directions

Evacuarion

In the first months of war we received many requests to help people leave Kharkiv and bring their children to safety. Between March and April 2022 we have managed to evacuate over 150 people to Italy, where they received full support for their adaptation from our team.

Distribution of Humanitarian Aid

After the outbreak of the war, the most vulnerable families lost their jobs and therefore the possibility to cover their basic needs. In partnership with AVSI Foundation and with support of the World Food Program (WFP) we managed to purchase and distribute 87500 food parcels, most of which were distributed to people living in the Kharkiv region. Thanks to the funding of the Emilia-Romagna Region, from July to November we supported 100 families raising children with disabilities: once a month we prepared food parcels, medicines, hygiene products and household products.

Multi-purpose cash transfer

Given the extremely difficult situation that many people had to face when the war started and that they had to leave everything, we started various projects of financial support in collaboration with AVSI Foundation. In particular, we selected vulnerable families and provided them with one-time financial support. In March and April we carried out two projects of financial help: thanks to the support given by Italian private donors we supported 780 people that continued living in the Kharkiv and Sumy region; and, thanks to the support given by World Food Program (WFP), we supported 1000 households that had been temporarily displaced and were sheltered in Ivano-Frankivsk and in the Lviv region.

At present, we continue our work in this direction and, thanks to the support given by AVSI-USA and from Pulte Family Foundation, we support over 150 vulnerable families in Kharkiv and in the Kharkiv region.

Educational and recreational activities

Even during the worst weeks and months of war, children and young adults continued living in the Kharkiv region, and their lives have completely changed. From the desire to build a safe space in which they could continue to grow, do interesting things, and spend time with friends, we started a project to offer regular recreational, educational, and psychosocial activities to more than 1,500 children in the Kharkiv region. In addition, we distributed more than 3,100 study kits (backpack, stationery, notebooks). Another program in the educational sphere concerns training courses for 56 teachers and volunteers involved in our projects, focused on working with children in the context of military conflict.

Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

Most of the children and young adults with disabilities that remained in the Kharkiv region after the outbreak of the war could not access rehabilitative physiotherapy, which is essential for maintaining and improving their health conditions. In December 2022 with the support of AVSI Foundation and OCHA, we started individual physical rehabilitation courses for 100 children with disabilities, who will receive expert help from FIZIO Rehabilitation Center. As part of the project, the children will also receive a set of basic sports equipment that will enable them to continue exercising at home.

Reconstruction

One of the consequences of the Russian military invasion was the total or partial destruction of infrastructure, including schools. Together with AVSI Foundation and OCHA, we have focused our efforts and resources on the Kharkiv region and have already carried out partial reconstruction in four schools and we are now preparing the documentation and the reconstruction works in nine other schools in the Kharkiv region.

Collaboration

Since the beginning of the war we started, like all Ukrainians, to understand clearly that our unity is our strength. Therefore, since the very first days of the invasion, we put together our forces and our resources with our partners so that we could help as many people as possible. In addition, right in these months we managed to join forces with the Kharkiv Regional Council and with the Kharkiv City Council and, together, respond to the most urgent requests for help from the citizens of our city and region.