[ [link removed] ]Mercy Corps

Dear friend,

We are continuing our series of updates from Mercy Corps’ response to the
Ukraine war with this first report of 2023. This update features three
stories of remarkable hope and resilience from three places where our
teams are responding: Kyiv and Dnipro in Ukraine, and Warsaw, Poland.

As we begin a new year,
Mercy Corps is committed to staying in the region to
support a long-term response and recovery — continuously adapting our
response to what is needed moment by moment.

We are now approaching eleven months of war in Ukraine, and winter
conditions continue to pose further risks to millions of people already
facing violence, displacement, diminished utilities, and lack of basic
supplies. Increased attacks could lead to a collapse of the country’s
power grid, leaving tens of millions of people facing brutal winter
temperatures without heat, light, or water.

Each story below is a window into the ongoing challenges people are facing
as we approach a year of war — and the impact we are making
for families in the midst of this crisis.


Kyiv: Longing for "the peaceful life"


[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Antonina and her family fled to Kyiv shortly after the war began. "We have
survived it, but it will stay with us for life," she says. "We shall never
be able to forget it."


Antonina, 53, is from Kreminna, near the Russian border in Eastern
Ukraine. When the bombing began in her city in March, she hid with her
family in the cellar of their home and later, their neighbors joined them.
Thirty-five people stayed there, including eight children, with no running
water or electricity.

"When people came running down after the air raid alert…I found a 1.5
liter of bottled water in my cellar, and we shared that water using tiny
plastic glasses," she says.

Eventually, they fled to Kyiv where Mercy Corps and our local partners
provided Antonina’s family with food, plus cash assistance for housing and
medical care for her father-in-law when he broke his arm.

Dnipro: Life in a crowded hostel


[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Valentyna’s hometown in Ukraine has seen conflict for years. Her
granddaughter’s school was destroyed by violence in 2014 and later
rebuilt. In February 2022, it was destroyed again.


Valentyna fled to Dnipro from her hometown in the Donetsk region in March,
an area where conflict has been active since the early days of the war. As
they were leaving, she recalls there was shelling behind them.

Now in Dnipro, she lives with her husband, daughter, son, and
granddaughter in a small hostel room. "We have ten people staying in one
room. It is tough," she says.

With cash assistance from Mercy Corps, Valentyna and her family were able
to pay for two months of rent plus utilities and medication which she
needs for an injury to her knee. They expect that they will be able to
cover the next four months of rent with this money, too.

"We want to go home," Valentyna says. "The question is, should we be able
to live there? Everything is destroyed and burned down, no hospital or
schools, infrastructure is non-existent. So we just live day-to-day
without making any long-term plans."

Warsaw: Searching for work in a new city


[ [link removed] ][IMG]
Yurii lives with his family in Warsaw after fleeing their home due to
bombing. At home, he harvested wheat, barley, and sunflower. "It was
beautiful," he says of his home.


Yurii Ostapenko, 54, is from the Luhansk region of Ukraine. After his home
and village were bombed in September, he and his wife, who lives with a
disability, decided it was time to leave for their safety. His two
children and three grandchildren had already fled Ukraine for Poland.

He now lives in Warsaw with his family, but they hope to return to their
home in Ukraine when it is safe to do so.

In Poland, he has been searching for work, but hasn’t been able to find
anything yet. With support from Mercy Corps, Yurii was able to get an
apartment within 24 hours of arriving in the city. He called our local
partner’s emergency hotline, which provides assistance to recently
displaced Ukranians in Poland and connects them with job information,
temporary housing, doctors, and other services.

The
stories of Antonina, Valentyna, and Yurii are a few of the 100,000+people
in Ukraine that our team members and local partners have reached so far,
with the support of the Mercy Corps’ global community. But our response
does not end there.

The devastation in Ukraine reaches far beyond its borders. Food crises in
Africa and the Middle East continue to escalate. Combined with extreme
droughts and floods caused by climate change, more and more people are
being pushed to the brink of famine and poverty. We can’t lose sight of
what is happening in countries across the globe.

We
are proud of this work — and today, we ask you to help sustain this impact
in places like Ukraine and in 40+ countries worldwide where Mercy Corps is
making a difference. As humanitarian needs grow around the world,
[ [link removed] ]consider becoming a monthly donor — a Mercy Corps Partner In
Possibility — to help sustain our global impact throughout 2023.



[ [link removed] ]Give monthly [ [link removed] ]▸


Thank you again for being part of this extraordinary
response to an extraordinary moment.

Sincerely,

The Mercy Corps team

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

[ Facebook ]Facebook [ Twitter ]Twitter [ Instagram ]Instagram [ LinkedIn ]LinkedIn [ YouTube ]YouTube

[ [link removed] ]mercycorps.org | [ tel:+18887477440 ](888) 747‑7440 | Portland, OR

Mercy Corps, Dept. W, National Processing Center
P.O. Box 37800, Boone, IA 50037-4800

© 2023 [ [link removed] ]Mercy Corps
[ [link removed] ]Privacy Policy | [ [link removed] ]Manage Preferences | [ [link removed] ]Unsubscribe


You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]