The extremely low temperatures and the frequent lack of electricity, heating, and water make aid workers’ work difficult. We have distributed stoves, blankets, food, and personal hygiene products to more than 20,000 families despite this
In a few weeks, it will be two years since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The end of 2023 and the beginning of the new year have been marked by intense attacks on different areas of Ukrainian territory, causing casualties and injuries. The seasonal cold weather is exacerbating the situation, which is putting even more strain on the civilian population, already suffering from the consequences of the war.
The latest data provided by UN agencies, such as UNHCR and IOM, speak of nearly 4 million internally displaced persons and almost 6 million refugees in several European countries. INTERSOS is still operating in the country today to bring humanitarian aid to the localities of Vinnytsia, Poltava, Kharkiv, Odessa, and Dnipro, and the entire oblasts of Vinnytska, Odeska, Poltavska, Kharkivska, Dnipropetrovska, Mykolaivska, Khersonska, Zaporizhzhska and Donetsk.
Directly from the camp, INTERSOS aid workers tell what is happening these days and their intervention in response to the needs. They describe the severe conditions they work in that make intervening more complex, with the temperature dropping to minus 15 degrees in several areas and the absence of electricity, water, and heating. Some 3,000 families have suffered damage to their homes, and the ongoing hostilities have affected, as they have in the past, humanitarian organisations working near the front line.
However, the Intersos Rapid Response Team has continued working. In 2023, it provided emergency assistance to the country’s most remote communities, those most difficult to reach due to daily airstrikes, such as Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson. Over 20,000 families received food, stoves, blankets to protect them from the cold, personal hygiene products, and materials to repair damaged homes. In most of these communities, many essential goods are in short supply, there are no shops where they can be bought, or they have become unaffordable due to the ongoing inflation in the country.
The difficulty of being treated and cared for by adequate medical facilities is still a privilege for much of the population. For almost two years, the INTERSOS medical team has been trying to reach those who cannot be examined, especially the many displaced persons living in shelters. From Odesa – in the south – and from Poltava – in the north-east – a doctor and two nurses from the organisation travel with a mobile clinic to Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Kharkiv.
Primary care, provision of medicines, and health promotion in collective shelters and community centres hosting those who have fled their homes and found refuge there. In 2023, more than 200,000 essential medicines and medical equipment were distributed to health facilities. Some people live only a few kilometres from the front line; their safety is at risk due to their proximity to areas under bombardment fire. It is on them that INTERSOS’s primary focus is directed; reaching them means responding to emergencies where there is a need, filling a gap in services caused by the destruction. Life-saving assistance that matches the front line in Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk.