The Zaporizkyi Raion of the eponymous oblast includes 17 communities. As of the beginning of October, 35,140 IDPs have found their new homes there. The raion’s social protection institutions provide them with all the necessary support. To improve the conditions for the provision of social services, in particular to IDPs, we have provided modern office equipment to the target communities of the raion.
We talked to Viktor Mark, Head of the Social Protection Department of the Zaporizkyi Raion State Administration, about how the work of the institution has changed over the past year and a half, what difficulties IDPs and the social protection department face, and how they are gradually overcoming challenges together.
Viktor, tell us about Zaporizkyi Raion. Do you have any data on how many IDPs live there now?
The Zaporizkyi Raion was formed in 1939. In 2020, according to the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the Formation and Liquidation of Districts” No. 807-IX of 17.07. 2020, the raion included the territories of Bilenkivska, Dolynska, Matviyivska, Mykhailivska, Mykhailo-Lukashivska, Novooleksandrivska, Pavlivska, Petro-Mykhailivska, Stepnenska, Tavriyska, Shyrokivska village, and Komyshuvaska, Kushuhumska, Novomykolaivska, Ternuvatska settlement, Vilnianska, Zaporizka city territorial communities approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
As of October 11, 2023, 35,140 internally displaced persons were registered in our raion.
What are the key tasks of your department? What kind of workload are its employees experiencing now?
The Department of Social Protection of the Population of Zaporizhzkyi Raion State Administration of Zaporizka Oblast consists of three subdivisions:
- Department of Social Protection of the Population (Zaporizhzhia);
- a subdivision of the Department of Social Protection of the Population (Vilniansk);
- a subdivision of the Department of Social Protection of the Population (Novomykolayivka).
The main tasks of the department are to implement the state social policy in the field of social protection of the population in Zaporizkyi Raion. We provide social protection to the population, children, internally displaced persons, and support families, including families with children, large families, and young families. We work to prevent and combat domestic and gender-based violence, ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men, combat human trafficking, and improve children’s health and recreation. The department also assigns and pays social assistance, targeted financial aid, compensation and other social benefits established by law.
Due to Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the number of IDPs who have moved from the temporarily occupied territories of the country has significantly increased in the territorial communities of Zaporizkyi Raion. Accordingly, the workload of each employee of the department has increased.
What are the main needs of IDPs living in Zaporizkyi Raion?
The main challenges faced by internally displaced persons in the first weeks after displacement are: settling in, paperwork, receiving financial assistance, basic necessities, and medical care.
Most IDPs need support: financial, humanitarian, legal, and psychological. Social security departments are of great help in this regard. Territorial communities of the raion are constantly working to reduce social tension among IDPs by expanding the range of social guarantees for them.
In order to provide social services and solve the urgent problems of IDPs, social workers and community specialists periodically conduct mini-surveys, involve public and volunteer organizations that can provide food packages. We provide medical and psychological assistance, solve legal, social, medical, and domestic issues of IDPs.
What has been the biggest success and the biggest challenge for your department since the beginning of the full-scale war?
In such a difficult time for Ukraine, the department timely accrues and pays all types of social benefits and compensations. This is the biggest success and the biggest challenge for us. Women work in the department. They are grandmothers, mothers, and wives to their families and at the same time have to fulfill their official duties.
How does equipment help social workers in their work? Why is it important to update it?
The majority of the department’s work is related to equipment, from accepting documents to assigning benefits and then transferring funds to recipients’ accounts. Old devices make the work much more difficult because they are slow and do not always support modern software. Therefore, it is important to upgrade them to improve work efficiency. The equipment must work quickly, especially now that the bulk of state social benefits are being transferred to the Unified Information System of the Social Sphere (UISSS) and a large number of recipients are migrating between raions.
To what extent has the modern equipment that we, together with UNHCR, have provided you with facilitated your work? What processes have been optimized?
Thanks to the new equipment, we managed to improve access to the Internet and increase the efficiency of work related to the calculation of IDP benefits. We hired another employee to work with IDPs because the old computer could not work with the modern databases of IDPs, the Social Community, and the UISSS. The conditions for printing scanned copies of documents have also improved significantly thanks to new multifunctional devices. Old printers print scans that come in from the raion’s united territorial community very poorly. Sometimes it was even impossible to read what was printed.
In addition to new equipment, what else could improve the work of your department?
We also need new LED lights and furniture, such as tables, chairs, and filing cabinets. But the most important thing is equipment. Several times a year, unfortunately, something always breaks down (ink cartridges, computers, network switches, mice, keyboards, power strips, etc.).
Who is a worker in the social protection system? What are the main qualities of these professionals?
Social protection workers are professionally trained specialists who perform various types of social work. They provide all (or some) types of social assistance that help a person, family or group of people overcome the problems they face. They are skilled counselors and communicators who skillfully operate with the laws of Ukraine, using them to resolve crisis situations. Together with their clients, they create mechanisms to get out of difficult situations.
Important qualities and skills of social workers are specificity and clarity, self-awareness and the ability to help others, sincerity, and the ability to behave naturally with clients. These people adhere to the “here and now” rule, which obliges them to solve problems immediately and satisfy the client’s needs.
What are your department’s plans for 2024?
We have one wish: for the war to end! And to end with our victory.
This publication was prepared by the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Service” with funding from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the CO CF SSS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Agency.
