Dear John,

When someone is forced to flee their home, what is it that they need most? Is it shelter? Medicine? Clothes? Maybe it’s food, or data for their phone? Maybe it’s a combination of the above?

The answer is not always obvious. Some refugees may have access to shelter, but not medicine. They may have warm clothing but cannot afford to feed their family. Everyone’s needs are different, which is why UNHCR is providing refugees with the one thing that can give them the power to decide and choose what they most need: cash.

Cash assistance is helping Yanina prepare for the arrival of her baby. Yanina fled Ukraine without her partner when she was nine months pregnant. She was one of the first people registered for our cash assistance programme in Poland, receiving 710 Polish Zloty (around US$170) and used the money to buy food and clothes for her new baby. With what little money Yanina had remaining, she bought a gift to thank the family who are generously hosting her in their home.

Thousands of people have already been registered for cash assistance, which is the quickest and most effective way to help refugees. However, we need more support to scale up our response. We plan to provide 600,000 refugees in Poland and Moldova with cash assistance over the next few months, but we need urgent funds to do this. Please, will you give US$170 (one month’s worth of assistance) today?