Before the full-scale invasion of russia, Kosiv town municipality was a picturesque mountain tourist area, with popular routes and recreation centres, since 54 percent of the municipality area is covered with forests.
“Since the first days of the war, we have not been an exception. We have witnessed a spontaneous arrival of internally displaced persons. Many of them had already been here before and returned to us based on good memories,” says the head of Kosiv town municipality Yurii Ploskonos.
The number of registered persons reached approximately 6,700. So the municipality faced a difficult task: to accept everyone and to create comfortable conditions. Some of the displaced settled in green tourism estates, in the private sector, and in tourist camps.
“We organised the reception of internally displaced persons in six municipal schools. At its peak, more than 400 people were here at once. In total, over 1,000 internally displaced persons passed through communal facilities in our municipality,” the village head recalls.
But at the end of the summer, the government announced the resumption of the educational process. Therefore, the number of internally displaced persons who lived in schools had to quickly find an alternative.
“We had one vacant facility, but, unfortunately, it was completely unsuitable for living. So we turned to our long-time partner — the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, and they helped us prepare a grant project and, eventually, win it.”
Soon, up to 40 displaced persons will be able to live comfortably in the premises which did not have any communications before. Yurii Ploskonos, the head of Kosiv town municipality, is convinced that Kosiv residents would not have been able to achieve this result so quickly if it were not for the help of U-LEAD with Europe experts and international funds.