CrimeaSOS: the need for power banks and warm clothes increased among IDPs before the winter season
10 / 11 / 2023
CrimeaSOS facilitators report an increase in requests for power banks and warm clothes from internally displaced persons (IDPs) before the start of the winter season.
According to them, people are worried about what the winter will be like and whether the lights will be turned off again.Therefore, the most popular requests for volunteers include flashlights, power banks, warm blankets, warm seasonal clothes, warm children’s and adult shoes, socks, thermal underwear, candles, sleeping bags, canisters, fans for heating, battery-powered lighting lamps, generators, thermoses, long-term storage products.
In the Rivne, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ternopil and Poltava regions, requests for firewood for heating homes are also very common.
With the onset of winter, people are also worried about the increase in costs for communal services and housing rent. We remind you that last month CrimeaSOS facilitators noted the deterioration of the financial situation of IDP families after the cancellation of state payments for some categories of displaced persons.
CrimeaSOS facilitators communicate individually with forced migrants and fix the main problems in the fields of legal and social protection, work with children, etc. The data is sent to UNHCR project partners for their analysis, processing and further assistance to IDPs.
Since November 2022, CrimeaSOS facilitators have received and processed 9,407 appeals from internally displaced persons. Only in August of this year, 923 appeals were received.
CrimeaSOS facilitators currently work in 14 regions of Ukraine: Vinnytsia, Poltava, Sumy, Cherkasy, Ternopil, Lviv, Rivne, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Volyn, Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk.
The work of facilitators and consultants in the regions is an activity of CrimeaSOS within the project “Strengthening IDP communities in the central and western regions of Ukraine”. The project is implemented with the financial support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).