On 19 March, the U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Khmelnytskyi Oblast hosted a meeting of the representatives of municipalities with Tetiana Sych, coordinator of the Rokada Charitable Foundation’s branch in Khmelnytskyi.
Dmytro Vasylenko, head of the Office, noted:
“It is great to have such organisations working with the oblast’s municipalities. As a structure that promotes the capacity of local self-government, we are committed to organising information events for local self-government representatives on new development opportunities. Our plan is to keep on organising them in this format in the future.”
Tetiana Sych said that the UNHCR’s Rokada Charitable Foundation has worked with refugees migrating to Ukraine from other countries since 2003:
“We facilitated their integration into Ukrainian society and provided social support to refugees and asylum seekers. We established branches in 15 oblasts of Ukraine after 24 February 2022 and started to provide psychosocial support and charitable non-food aid to those who were forced to leave their homes due to the hostilities and shelling and relocate to safer municipalities.”
She informed the participants of the meeting about the performance of the Rokada Foundation’s Khmelnytskyi branch in 2022–2023. Thus, more than 13 thousand people were consulted on protection issues. The specialists of the foundation provided more than 9,000 psychological and 740 social support consultations, arranged transportation, helped victims of violence and children at risk, and took almost 4,500 calls to the hotline.
In terms of non-food aid, the coordinator reported that 22716 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 10958 affected families received blankets, pillows and mattresses. People arrived to the municipalities without any essential personal belongings, while ensuring normal sleeping conditions is an important element in the human body’s recovery. The CF also donated 941 household appliances worth UAH 7.2 million to IDPs’ temporary accommodation centres (TACs).
Tetiana Sych also informed that in 2024, the organisation will focus more on training internally displaced persons, assisting in their employment and integration into the municipality, as well as relocation from the TACs to normal housing. The Rokada Charitable Foundation also intends to expand operations to 4 more oblasts, continue supporting initiative groups, help create children’s and social spaces, provide psychosocial assistance and other services.
The organisation plans to focus on the socio-economic development of IDPs and their integration into municipalities.
“In 2024, we wish to stand shoulder to shoulder with the municipalities that host or have sheltered IDPs. We are going to implement joint cultural and educational projects, conduct thematic trainings to prevent burnout of the representatives of municipalities, integration activities, information meetings, and share experience between the Foundation’s representatives and local self-government bodies,” emphasised Tetiana Sych. She added that joint efforts are essential in every area in order to bring its development to a higher level.
When asked about the cooperation of local self-government with the Rokada Foundation’s branch, the speaker said:
“We communicate our initiatives in the group for the municipalities of Khmelnytskyi Oblast. Those municipalities concerned give us feedback and join in the implementation. This is how it worked with the arrangement of children’s spaces and social laundries, as well as with the support of other initiatives. The municipalities need to be aware of their problems and know the ways to solve them. They should also address the Foundation with their proposals.”
Reference. Activities of the Rokada Charitable Foundation in 2024:
- Providing support to initiative groups (micro-grant programme).
- Development and implementation of child-safe spaces.
- Capacity building of protection and social service providers.
- Activities to prevent gender-based violence.
- Working with children at risk.
- Monitoring of the protection sector.
- Social assistance and support.
- Providing mental health and psychosocial support in municipalities.
- Promoting the development of municipalities.
- Providing non-food aid.
- Administration and coordination of collective centres.
- Housing repairs in affected municipalities.
- Integrating IDPs and conflict-affected people into relevant programmes and services.
