EU and IOM provide emergency assistance to war-affected Ukrainians

With financial support from the EU, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Ukraine has distributed 8,800 hygiene kits in Zaporizhia, Zakarpattia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. More deliveries are foreseen for the near future, including in hard-to-reach areas.

The distributed hygiene kits are part of a vast pipeline of close to 50,000 tons of aid that IOM was able to set up in the first weeks of the war. Through its system of logistics hubs and warehouses in various countries, including inside Ukraine, the IOM will now receive dozens of trucks with humanitarian aid per week for the response in Ukraine.

This aid is only one component of the multi-sectoral response supported through the EU-funded project for the next few months. War-affected communities across Ukraine will benefit from increased access to critical non-food items (NFI), such as hygiene kits for individuals, households and collective centres, as well as basement and emergency shelter repair kits.

The IOM says it will provide in-kind assistance to up to 60,000 vulnerable persons, prioritising pregnant and single women, families with two or more children, persons with disabilities or chronic diseases and the elderly.

Displaced households will receive hygiene and NFI kits, while people who are staying in insecure areas and are forced to seek shelter will be provided with more tailored emergency kits meant to support survival in basements. To ensure safe and dignified conditions for newly displaced persons, IOM will support collective centres that have been urgently set up across the country to host fleeing Ukrainians, as well as social and medical facilities providing services to IDPs.

IOM will rehabilitate and equip common areas such as laundry rooms, showers or toilets, replace windows and repair sewage and heating systems in an effort to ensure that they can accommodate and support high numbers of vulnerable individuals. In addition, where applicable, IOM will also establish child-friendly spaces within the centres.

As lack of public transport remains one of the key concerns in the war-affected regions of Ukraine, where applicable and feasible, the EU and IOM will provide cash and voucher transportation support and will advocate with the private sector to facilitate movements.

“The war in Ukraine is amounting to a humanitarian catastrophe. We are doing everything in our power to get relief items to the Ukrainian people, and to help them access life-saving services,” said Yorgos Kapranis, EU humanitarian aid emergency coordinator for Ukraine.

According to the IOM, the number of people uprooted by the Russian aggression has already exceeded 11 million