Dear John,
I’m writing to you from Lviv, Ukraine. Sadly, it has now been one month since this war began. One month of violence, lost lives, torn apart families, needless destruction, and massive displacement.
I have worked with UNHCR for more than 20 years—but in this job, you never become used to seeing the devastating effects of war on people’s lives. As I write this, a quarter of Ukraine’s population – more than 10 million people have been forced from their homes in Ukraine, including 6.5 million people displaced across the country and 3.7 million abroad as refugees seeking safety in neighbouring countries. I have never seen a refugee emergency escalate at this speed before.
The beacon of hope amid this crisis is the outpouring of solidarity we have seen among Ukrainian people and communities, and from all over the world. This support and the welcome that refugees from Ukraine have received in neighbouring countries and beyond has been incredibly heartening.
The UNHCR team in Ukraine has also been displaced from our homes and duty stations in locations like Mariupol and Kyiv. Despite themselves being on the move, our team has been working day and night for a month to reach displaced and conflict-affected people with protection information and services, shelter support and in-kind and cash assistance. Amid a very difficult and fluid security situation, we have delivered blankets, mattresses, and shelter materials across all areas of Ukraine. We are providing psychosocial support, counselling, and information on available services to highly traumatized people affected by the war.
The number of people displaced within Ukraine continues to increase day by day. To help families cover their immediate basic needs in displacement and in the most dignified way possible, UNHCR has started rolling out a large-scale cash assistance programme targeting 360,000 individuals in the first three months. It has started being rolled out in Lviv region while being expanded to cover other regions. |
