Solidarity with Ukraine – Fondation de France’s key priorities as winter approaches

Reinforcing humanitarian aid

As winter approaches, responding to basic needs remains the key priority. According to the UN, almost 18 million people, representing over 40% of the entire population of Ukraine, are in need of humanitarian aid. Fondation de France is still mostly active in Ukraine, where needs are greatest. It supports organizations such as Vostok SOS, which evacuates civilians on the front lines. Those who wish to leave their home or arrange evacuation for one of their loved ones can use a hotline to contact Vostok SOS. The teams transfer these people to safe zones and help them settle, or drive them to hospital centers if required.

Help for refugees has also been reinforced in neighboring countries. In Romania, for example, where Fondation de France is working with Concordia, an organization specialized in helping migrants. Orphans, physically and mentally disabled people and foreigners from Ukraine are among the most vulnerable. They receive shelter and the offer of practical and psychological support for the short and medium term.

Specific needs as winter approaches

As of mid-October 2022, 30% of all the Ukrainian electric and hydroelectric power stations have been destroyed. Several regions are experiencing power and water outages, as is the case in Kyiv and its surrounding areas and also in Pavlohrad and Dnipro in the center of Ukraine. Fondation de France has decided to support Électriciens sans frontières (Electricians Without Borders). The nonprofit supplies power and heating in the country’s shelters and medical centers by providing solar lamps, heating devices, portable batteries, refrigerators and generators.

Another major concern, especially during the winter period, has been to ensure that shelter can be offered to the displaced. In Tyachiv, in the East of Ukraine, the Medical Aid Committee in Zakarpattya is renovating a social center for those in emergency accommodation. The aim is to double the number of displaced people it can accommodate to about a hundred.

Active in the country for the past 15 years, nonprofit Depaul Ukraine distributes survival kits for refugees (lamps, warm clothing, blankets, fuel for heating). The association also contributes to the renovation of local infrastructure and housing damaged by Russian bombing.

Defending human rights

In order to protect and defend human rights, Fondation de France supports organizations like Luhansk Regional Human Rights, a Ukrainian nonprofit active in the Donbas region. It documents the violation of rights that war victims have suffered, provides the latter with legal advice and helps them prepare war crime prosecutions and take their lawsuits to the International Court of Justice for instance.

Fondation de France supports other projects, such as Trajectoires, a nonprofit which combats human trafficking. This is a particularly sensitive issue in times of war, when criminal networks make easy prey of vulnerable refugees, including children unaccompanied by a parent, women and minority groups. Trajectoires identifies possible victims of human trafficking among Ukrainian refugees. It also organizes care for them in neighboring countries, coordinating their efforts with Moldavan and Romanian associations which offer shelter and psychological support.

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