Our Foundation continues to support and partner with events to strengthen IDP Councils’ activities. On April 5, we co-organized the forum “Interaction and Integration” with the participation of the Khmelnytskyi City Council. The event brought together more than 100 participants: IDPs and refugees, charitable and public organizations, and representatives of IDP Councils from Khmelnytska, Ternopilska, Chernivetska, Zakarpatska and Rivnenska oblasts.
The following panel discussions were initiated at the forum:
- “Employment and training for IDPs” – presented the best practices of ensuring the observance of the rights of IDPs at the local community level and exchanged experience with organizations representing IDPs;
- “Exchange of experience of IDP Councils of the central and western regions of Ukraine” – comparing the achievements and challenges of the councils of Zakarpatska, Rivnenska, Ternopilska, and Chernivetska oblasts;
- “Key cases of charitable and non-governmental organizations. Experience of IDP integration: successes and challenges” – exchanged experience of integration activities for IDPs, which various charitable organizations and NGOs regularly hold in the regions of Ukraine.
Serhiy Yatskovskyi, regional coordinator of the CF SSS, said, “This forum was the result of a year’s work of the IDP Council under the Khmelnytskyi City Council, as it was established on April 6, 2023. Today, due to the large number of issues and challenges, IDPs’ problems have become less visible, but they have not disappeared. Whole lists of new problems have emerged, such as social housing or the work of real estate companies, when IDPs are required to have a large enough sum of money to rent an apartment. Other pressing issues are the response to the status of IDPs in public transportation, the issue of offline education for IDP children living in the community but not attending educational institutions, and the issue of relocated universities. The forum is another opportunity to remind the authorities of these problems and initiate the search for opportunities and ways to overcome them.”
Khmelnytskyi already has successful integration programs for IDPs. For example, the city recently opened a social crisis center for single people, including IDPs, who require care. Currently, there are 14 IDPs who need such assistance, and the process of their admission to the center is underway. Also, the Khmelnytskyi City Council presented another completed project to provide about 230 IDPs with quality housing. In addition, the construction of two apartment buildings for IDPs has started.
“Since the beginning of the war, our community has hosted about 300,000 Ukrainians from other cities, of whom up to 20,000 have stayed here. The forum aimed to develop joint algorithms for interaction, support, adaptation, and integration of internally displaced persons into communities. The agenda included many issues of concern to IDPs, employment and education (presentation of best practices to ensure the rights of IDPs at the local community level); exchange of experience of IDP Councils in the central and western regions of Ukraine, key cases of charitable and civil society organizations, experience of IDP integration: successes and challenges, etc.”, said Khmelnytsky Mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn.
We co-organized the event together with the Rokada Charitable Foundation, Khmelnytskyi City Council, SV-Club, and the Civic Initiative of Luhansk Region. The event was supported by the Supporting the Capacity of the Social Protection System to Register Internally Displaced Persons project, funded by the United Nations Refugee Agency in Ukraine (UNHCR).
