Our project to support the social protection system continues. We share the key results of our work over the past month.
In October, our regional teams held:
- 3 coordination meetings with the management of social protection institutions;
- 14 seminars for social protection institutions;
- 8 trainings on preventing burnout for employees of social protection institutions;
- 10 presentations of reports on the results of monitoring of local policies and programmes on social protection, including internally displaced people;
- 9 capacity building events for Internally Displaced People’s Councils and 4 strategic sessions for them;
- 3 meetings with communities to update social passports;
- 23 meetings for communities that needed consultations on the implementation of the social protection system development plan;
- 9 advocacy events for the institutionalisation of social housing and housing solutions for internally displaced people at the community/regional level;
- 32 studies of the needs of residential social protection institutions for the elderly in the context of war and relocation;
- 2 inter-regional forums for Internally Displaced People’s Councils (Western Ukraine in Lviv, Eastern Ukraine in Poltava), together with partners – regional forum (Odesa region);
- 15 coordination meetings with partners.
We provided 504 legal consultations at the request of social security institutions, and 2,082 to affected people, including internally displaced people. The most frequent topics we were approached with were: housing issues, housing allowances and other social benefits. We provided 59 consultations to Internally Displaced People’s Councils on the development of a strategic plan, organisation of work, membership and withdrawal from the council.
Further, we provide technical support to social protection institutions and transfer equipment to equip their employees’ workplaces.
In October, the target communities received:
- 125 laptops and accessories;
- 120 multifunctional devices for printing and scanning.
In addition, we handed over 10 electric bicycles to social workers and employees of territorial centres in Zaporizhzhia and Ternopil regions. This will help them get to their charges faster to deliver medicines, food and provide home-based social services.
It is important for us to hear feedback from the communities we have helped. So, in addition to cold hard facts about our work, we are happy to share their feedback.
Oksana Yelchiieva, Director of the Social Protection Department of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration: “I am sincerely grateful to your foundation for the assistance provided to the social protection institutions of the Mykolaiv region. This is the only organisation that significantly supports social protection institutions: it provides financial support, conducts trainings on professional burnout and webinars. All this is a significant contribution to ensuring sustainable assistance to the affected people and internally displaced people in particular.”
Alla Bilichenko, Head of the Social Protection Sector of the Snovsk City Council: “The equipment we had was quite outdated. That’s why your help is very important now. Given the current workload, we need stable operation of the equipment. I think we can cope with power cuts, because laptops are more autonomous. We have constant air raid alerts, and for security reasons we cannot stay in the city council building. That’s why laptops allow us to work from home. In fact, there are cases when we work remotely.”
Yuliia Mykhlina, Director of the Social Services Centre of Koriukivka City Council: “Most of our equipment is outdated, it has been in use since 2012. Thanks to the support of Charitable Organization “Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services”, we received not only new colour printers, but also two laptops. We can use them both on business trips and around the city to provide services to people with limited mobility. We are also moving towards the point where social service providers will work with the UISSS. Working with the database requires good equipment so that data transfer is fast. By working on laptops and having two uninterruptible power supplies, we are better prepared for winter and possible blackouts.”
Serhii Honcharenko, Director of the Social Services Centre of Novhorod-Siverskyi City Council: “We serve the local people and internally displaced people, most of whom are from the border villages of our community. Recently, we have brought two more old ladies on walkers. We have enough work. All the equipment we received is in the social work department, because it is most needed there. It is many times more powerful than the one we had. Because of the war, the workload on people is increasing, and when you have high-quality equipment, it is easier to work. We are grateful for this support, it is very important in the current situation.”
Nataliia Pohrebets, Director of the Social Service Centre of Ponornytsia Village Council: “Both internally displaced people and the affected people receive services in our institution. We have a displaced family-type house. There are 10 children in this family, and they receive support from social specialists. We also support several families in difficult life circumstances. We are currently studying the UISSS and will conduct case management. The equipment we had was not capable of handling the software, so now we can work effectively. Thank you very much! As soon as the equipment arrived, our young people said: “Wow! There is no such equipment anywhere else”. Special thanks for the extra cartridges. It’s so convenient, when the cartridge runs out, you can continue working without interrupting. We are very grateful that you paid attention to our community.”
In addition, in October, we handed over a set of equipment (4 SSD drives and an uninterruptible power supply) to the Social Protection Department of the Ternopil Regional Military Administration. The institution had previously received a server as part of the project. The project’s regional coordinator Yana Shkuratova says that she was approached with this request by the Department’s Director Oksana Smolii:
“She said that the server equipment had failed due to rolling blackouts and stopped the work of the entire social sector in the Ternopil region. This equipment is used to calculate payments, including monthly living allowances for internally displaced people, store database archives, etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need for replacement.”
Oksana Smolii, Director of the Social Protection Department of the Ternopil Regional Military Administration: “There are 67,668 internally displaced people in Ternopil region. We are very grateful for the help. It is extremely vital for us, especially during the constant blackouts we needed an uninterruptible power supply and memory discs. The equipment will ensure the stable operation of the department and district city administrations, which will definitely improve the quality and efficiency of assistance to internally displaced people.”
We will continue to help improve the social protection system in the target communities. We are implementing these initiatives within the scope of the project “Supporting the Capacity of the Social Protection System to Register Internally Displaced People” funded by the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine (UNHCR).
