We often talk about how we help the internally displaced persons in different communities of Ukraine. Today, however, we decided not just to report on the number of hygiene or food kits handed out, but to share the details of how the distribution is organized. In the beginning of August, our coordinator in Cherkasy region, Maryna Makukha, distributed hygiene products in four communities – Vatutinska, Buzhanska, Yerkivska, and Cherkaska – and allowed to look behind the scenes of this process.
Community leaders in Cherkasy region rarely apply for humanitarian aid on their own initiative. That is why Mrs. Maryna calls them herself and asks when was the last time they received a particular type of aid. This time, she had a batch of hygiene kits from CARE and chose communities where the hygiene products had been delivered a month and a half ago, or even earlier.
“I understand that volunteers and charitable organizations visit larger cities and villages more often. Therefore, I suggested concentrating on small settlements that are part of the selected communities, – says Maryna Makukha. – Thus, instead of distributing hygiene products in Vatutino, where aid from us and others had already been received, we went to three villages around. More than 200 IDPs live there now, and they were very happy to see us. They said that they are often left behind with hardly anyone reaching them, so they gave us a hearty welcome.”
Mrs. Maryna notes that the local authorities are very cooperative and help in every possible way to organize distribution points. According to her, no community leadership behaved indifferently.
“For example, in Yerkiv community, starostas (heads) took their cars and drove to pick up the elderly people who live far from the center of the village, where we distributed humanitarian aid. These people would not have reached it themselves, but this is how they were able to get the hygiene products,” says Ms. Maryna.
In the communities, the system of informing the displaced persons is in place: there are groups in Viber, through which the management informs about the planned distributions. And the residents themselves show concern for each other. When the coordinator of our fund distributed hygiene kits, people kept asking – did that family with children come? And that old woman? If not, they called them and asked the CF SSS team to wait a bit longer.
The IDPs mainly from Kherson and Mykolaiv regions live in Cherkasy region. The region also hosted IDPs from Kyiv region, but the majority of them has already returned home. People live in dormitories, kindergartens and schools. Currently, they are planned to be resettled, as the new school year is approaching, but they are not being kicked out. Mrs. Maryna notes that in every district of the region, empty abandoned houses are inspected, put in order and given to the displaced persons. Municipal apartments are also being equipped in the cities.
Unfortunately, many IDPs of Cherkasy region have nowhere to return because their homes were destroyed by the Russian army. But the new neighbors are taking care of them, and we will visit them again with humanitarian aid.