HEKS/András D. Hajdú
Emergency aid in Ukraine
Emergency aid in the war zone
Since March, HEKS/EPER has been carrying out a range of emergency aid activities through a humanitarian team stationed in Odessa. Their aim is to provide people in the embattled areas in southern and eastern Ukraine with essentials such as food, water, emergency packages, and medical equipment and consumables (learn more, in German).
In Odessa, food items such as potatoes, tomatoes or grain are bought from local farmers and sent y rail to cities in the east and south of the country most impacted by the war. These are distributed in the form of food packages with three days' supplies (in Zaporizhia, Mykolayiv and Kharkiv) and as dry food baskets for a month (in Donetsk and Kharkiv). In Kharkiv, which came under relentless fire for weeks on end, and where thousands of people in air-raid shelters and subway stations were entirely dependent on outside emergency aid, HEKS/EPER provided more than 3,300 warm meals every day. They were prepared in communal kitchens in the city centre and delivered to hard-to-reach areas in the north and east of the city. Food aid was also provided for extremely vulnerable people, such as refugees in collective reception centres and internally displaced persons.
HEKS/EPER is also distributing some 17,000 urgently needed hygiene kits to individuals, families and collective institutions in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia.
HEKS/Tom Robinson
Help for internally displaced people
HEKS/EPER has already been collaborating with the “Reformed Church in Transcarpathia” in western Ukraine for many decades now. Since the outbreak of the war, roughly 1.8 million people from disputed areas have sought refuge in Transcarpathia, more than anywhere else in Ukraine. HEKS/EPER therefore assists the Reformed Church in offering accommodation to refugees and in meeting their basic needs. Meanwhile, the established projects for senior citizens and people with disabilities who could not or did not wish to flee the country are continuing.
HEKS/EPER and other partner organizations jointly launched the "Ya Mariupol" initiative at the end of May in order to help people displaced from Mariupol. Three welcome centres are now operating in Kyiv, Odessa and Vinnytsia. They provide medical, psychological and legal assistance for refugees and evacuees from Mariupol, and also help with job placement or retraining opportunities.
In Odessa, Mykolayiv and Zaporizhia, HEKS/EPER also supplies collective welcome centres temporarily sheltering internally displaced people with hygiene kits and, as the winter approaches and nights grow colder, also with warm bedding.
Last Update: 21.09.2022
HEKS/András D. Hajdú