Ukraine

In 2022, we expanded our reach and began intensive cooperation with Peaceful Heaven in Kharkiv, an organisation that is providing operational assistance in one of the worst war-affected areas, the Kharkiv region, with a range of activities. It operates public kitchens and delivers hot meals, especially to de-occupied villages with poorer food availability, damaged by fighting or where fighting is still ongoing. I also sets up children’s centres with safety shelters, where school and leisure activities for children and their parents take place. It also focuses on psychosocial support and mental health care for people traumatised by the war, using EMDR method. It organises awareness-raising on unexploded ordnance management and mine clearance. And from spring 2024, the organisation has been running a mobile crisis team to help, for example, with evacuating residents to safety.

In November 2024, we established a separate Diaconia Ukraine so that we could further expand our activities and raise funds from other sources than before. In addition to our continued work with Myrne Nebo, we will also be operating in Poltava, a city about 120 km west of Kharkiv, where we will be providing food parcels (canned food, pasta, oil and other non-perishable food) and school education for children who have been learning online for several years with our local partner, the young active organisation Our Way.

Our other partner organization, the House of Mercy, cares for the elderly and vulnerable homeless people, especially in Kiev and the surrounding area. Together we provide them with shelter, meals and comprehensive social assistance. This takes various forms, such as assistance with the necessary documents, accompaniment to doctors and help with obtaining medical care, to returning to the clients‘ families or eventually transitioning to state institutions.

Although far from the fighting, Uzhhorod, near the Slovak border, still has many internally displaced refugees who have fled to safety as a result of the war. Eleonora Kulčar and her organisation Blaho have many years of experience in supporting mainly Roma children in socially excluded localities. Since March 2022, she has been running a sheltered community housing facility for internally displaced refugees. It organises tutoring and leisure activities for children. People can stay in the accommodation centre as long as they need and can use legal and psychological services.

Since 2014, we have been working with  Father’s House, an organization that cares for orphans and homeless children in the Kiev area. It runs an orphanage and supports foster families. It provides education, legal, social and psychological support for them. It cooperates with the local social welfare department on an aftercare programme for children who can return from Father’s House to their biological parents.