Help for Ukraine
Ukraine is experiencing one of the greatest refugee crises of our time. Fida supports mothers and children who have fled their homes.
24th Feb 2024 marked two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Nearly four million people within Ukraine are still waiting to return to their homes. They live in old properties and empty building, often in cramped conditions and without services. Space and resources begin to run out when, for example, the already poor Zakarpattia Oblast region bears the responsibility for tens of thousands of refugees.
Lifesaving Help and Moments of Joy in Everyday Life
Fida has assisted evacuees since the beginning of the war, together with Hungarian Baptist Aid and Transcarpathian Baptist Charity Foundation.
In 2023–2024 Fida has provided food aid, cash assistance, daily necessities, and psychosocial support in Zakarpattia Oblast. The aid has been aimed at 4500 internally displaced persons, for whom the support has been vital and lifesaving.
The project initially provided food aid, later transitioning to cash support, so that people could buy their own food. Some have also been able to pay for heating in the cold winter utilising this support.
Psychosocial support has been provided for both adults and children. Art clubs have been set up for evacuee children, to provide an environment to be creative and talk about experiences. According to parents, summer camps have been moments of joy for children, a time away from the often-painful life of a refugee.
Fida continues to provide regular cash assistance in the Berehove region.
Help Near the Frontline
Fida and Ukrainian Pentecostal Relief Organisation, Kindness, jointly respond to acute distress in the Zaporizhzhia region, a rural area located only tens of kilometres from the frontline.
In the area, war is a part of everyone’s life. There are no livelihood opportunities, and health services are not available. Every day is survival. The extreme cold of winter is the hardest time when food is also running low.
In the winter of 2023, survival packages were distributed in villages in the area, which included medicine and power banks, for instance.
A new, large-scale aid project responds to the distress of the region’s inhabitants by distributing regular cash aid. This form of aid has specifically been requested by local Ukrainians. People can use the money for their greatest need, such as paying for electricity, food, or rent.
Help for Refugees in Neighbouring Countries
Fida has also supported aid work in Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, and Poland. Here, refugees have been provided with food, hygiene products, clothing, and medicine. Psychosocial support, trauma therapy, and summer camps have been offered to support children. Aid workers have been trained in providing psychosocial support
What does help Achieve?