February 24, 2023, marks one year since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. The fighting has had severe consequences in Ukraine and around the world. Through devastation and fear, it’s also been a year of incredible resilience and bravery by the people of Ukraine and surrounding countries who’ve welcomed their neighbors in need – and by you, CARE donors, who’ve stepped up to protect the lives and futures of women and children.
In one year, more than 8,000 civilians in Ukraine have died and nearly 13,300 civilians have been injured. Persistent gunfire and explosions have forced 8 million people to seek refuge in neighboring countries, including Poland, Romania and Slovakia. In addition, an estimated 5.4 million people have been internally displaced, of whom 58% have been displaced for six months or more. Fighting has wreaked havoc on Ukraine’s infrastructure, including its energy grid and critical health facilities. Targeted missile and drone attacks in October and November 2022 left millions of Ukrainians without heat, electricity or running water – just as winter was approaching. On average, two health centers have been damaged or destroyed every day since the conflict began – with nearly 220 hospitals destroyed in the past year. In Mariupol alone, eight out of 10 health centers are now damaged or destroyed.
This trauma has had a devastating impact on the children of Ukraine. An estimated five million children have been displaced within and outside Ukraine in this past year, and nearly 500 children have been killed and 1,000 injured. Many children have been separated from one or both parents, and most children are now a year behind in school, as 2,528 schools have been damaged or destroyed. This past year will leave a long, dark shadow for the children of Ukraine, who have become accustomed to the sound of gunfire and bombs.
The Ukraine conflict also has caused ripple effects well beyond Europe, tipping an already fragile world into a widespread hunger crisis. Before the conflict, Ukraine and Russia were the breadbasket of the world, accounting for a significant portion of grain supplies to sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and elsewhere. The conflict also has disrupted the supply of fertilizer and fuel that farmers around the world need to grow their crops. Hunger was a crisis for millions of people even before the onset of the conflict in Ukraine. Today a record 345 million people face food insecurity – an increase of 46 million since 2020.
In response to this tragedy, CARE launched a comprehensive response in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Over the past year, we have built a robust network of partners throughout the region to provide lifesaving assistance to conflict-affected families and to help them meet their most urgent needs, while also ensuring that they can continue to live with dignity and hope as they begin rebuilding their lives. The following report provides a summary of the ways CARE and our partners have assisted affected communities over the past year.
Humanitarian Response
In Ukraine, CARE's response is guided by two of our foundational commitments – to support local solutions and to place women and girls at the center of our emergency response. So far, 77% of CARE’s funding for Ukraine has been channeled through our local partners, with CARE providing critical technical, administrative and programmatic support to organizations already on the ground to ensure that we reach the greatest number of people efficiently and effectively. Together, we have reached nearly 990,000 people in Ukraine and neighboring countries through cash assistance; food; health services; support for accommodation; protection of women and girls; education; psychosocial support; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) goods and services.
CARE’s commitment to gender sets us apart from other international organizations responding to the crisis in Ukraine. Humanitarian crises affect women and girls differently from men and boys. This is especially true of the refugee crisis associated with the conflict in Ukraine. As the men are obliged to stay and fight, women bear the responsibility of ensuring the health, safety and well-being of children and elderly relatives. CARE, in collaboration with U.N. Women, released rapid gender analysis reports in March and May 2022 highlighting the distinct needs of women and girls which then informed not only CARE’s response strategy, but also that of our peers. The reports were cited widely and used by multiple humanitarian actors. CARE also released special action grants to provide flexible funding for women-led organizations responding to the crisis in April. Throughout the past year, CARE has ensured that the needs and concerns of women and girls are front and center, integrating gender into all our cross-cutting programs.
Ukraine
An estimated 5.4 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine, with many families staying in temporary collective centers set up in schools, gyms and churches. According to the U.N., these collective centers grew from 160 in 2021 to 7,200 today. Often, these spaces are ill-equipped to provide safe and dignified long-term accommodation – particularly in winter. Nearly a quarter of the people staying in collective centers are children – and 7% are children under 5 years old. Several of CARE’s partners work directly with the collective centers to ensure the safety, health and dignity of displaced people. Our holistic approach seeks to address the full range of a displaced person’s needs, including psychosocial support. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, about 15 million Ukrainians will need psychological help in the next few years. Almost 90% of people who responded to a survey by the Ministry of Health responded that they have shown at least one sign of post-traumatic stress disorder.
To date, CARE has reached 752,789 people in Ukraine, including 650,162 through cross-border programming from Poland and Romania. CARE works closely with a network of 22 partners, most of which are Ukrainian-run organizations, including several that are led by women. Each partner brings their own set of expertise and resources that enrich the overall response. For example, Vostok SOS supports collective centers with furniture and appliances; the Ukrainian Women’s Fund provides psychosocial support for displaced people and traumatized volunteers; and Tyova Opora has been providing technical support and medical equipment for the Kyiv State Clinical Hospital.
Over the past year, CARE and our partners have reached 539,262 people with food and improved nutritional security. We also have provided healthcare services to 162,818 people through support for existing medical facilities as well as mobile clinics. CARE has reached 192,500 people in Ukraine with improved access to WASH through distribution of hygiene kits, emergency water trucking and other related activities.
CARE also co-leads a number of international task forces, including the Regional Gender Task Force and Action Team for Regional Gender Analysis (led by CARE and U.N. Women) as well as the WASH Gender and Inclusion Working Group (co-led by CARE and UNICEF). In a volatile environment where safety and security concerns can change by the day, CARE conducts regular access assessments and is developing a Real-time Review system to monitor the humanitarian operations within Ukraine. Importantly, the most recent access assessment revealed that security protocols in place are now sufficient to deploy more staff to high-risk areas where emergency actions are critically needed – especially during winter.
Poland
Poland has been the primary destination for the majority of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict. CARE has partnered with Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM), ADRA Polska, Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) and other organizations to reach 111,759 people in Poland. In the past year, CARE has supported nearly 2,000 survivors of violence with psychosocial support (including self-defense classes), while we provided more than 5,000 women with sexual and reproductive health services and/or support and protection for those affected by gender-based violence (GBV), thanks to partnerships with civil society organizations. CARE has provided multipurpose cash assistance to about 10,000 individuals, while more than 5,000 have received food assistance. More than 7,500 refugees have benefited from livelihoods assistance, including legal and job counseling, translation of documents and registration for social assistance provided by Polish authorities. CARE’s partners support the integration of refugees in Polish society by offering language courses, housing, administrative assistance and referral paths for the most vulnerable.
Alongside ADRA Polska and PAH, CARE has supported 48 refugee centers across Poland, reaching 27,468 people. CARE’s support helps ensure that the shelters are dispersed throughout the country – not just concentrated along borders and in major cities – and that they make use of existing infrastructure. One example of this is Ukrainian House, a cultural center in the border town of Przemysl that turned into an impromptu consulate in the early days of the conflict with the support of CARE and PAH.
Currently, 190,000 children from Ukraine are attending Polish schools. Many of them struggle with language barriers, psychological distress and cultural integration. In response, CARE partnered with the PCPM to hire more than 800 teachers and education staff to assist 40,000 children with primary school lessons in Ukrainian and Russian. This program employs women refugees to teach children, which helps put the children at ease and provide consistent livelihoods for refugee families.
Read more about our work in Slovakia, Romania, Moldova and Germany in the attached report. Also see our Year of Impact in pictures - https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?df_id=36148&mfc_pref=T&36148.donation...
