Ukraine Response Romania – Needs assessment in the Chernivtsi region, May 2023

Ukraine Response Romania – Needs assessment in the Chernivtsi region, May 2023

In May 2023, the HEKS/EPER Ukrainian Response team, together with our partners from the Bucovina Institute Association in Suceava, travelled to Chernivtsi, Ukraine, for two days to conduct a needs assessment throughout the Oblast for potential future upcoming projects.  

The team visited shelters in Chernivtsi Oblast and focused on villages that are less reached with support, like Tysivtsi, Nedoboivtsi, Kitsman, Hertsa, or Krasnoilsk. In those locations, they met with mayors, school principals, center directors, and staff members. The team also visited a few centers in Chernivtsi and met with local NGOs already involved in supporting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). All visits included focus groups with IDPs, organized to learn about their urgent needs. Most IDPs we discussed with came from affected oblasts, like Donetsk, Luhansk, or Kharkiv.  

So far, HEKS/EPER Romania has already intervened in the region through a project financed by The Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), since the summer of 2022, having reached more than 1000 IDPs. HEKS sought to improve both the short and long-term living standards of IDPs in Chernivtsi, with a focus on immediate basic needs support in the form of cash and vouchers, hygiene materials, food items, the rehabilitation of spaces, social and educational activities for children, and the distribution of essential NFI items (winter kits including clothes, school kits, tablets for children).  

In our focus groups, IDPs expressed positive feedback regarding the effectiveness of vouchers in supplementing their income and enabling them to purchase essential items that would have been difficult to afford otherwise. The most common suggestion was for donors to continue cash and voucher assistance for as long as needed and provide help based on family size. 

During our visit, we found many needs, and among the most predominant ones are related to housing (rehabilitation of spaces, essential equipment, permanent houses), basic life-sustaining assistance (like MPCA), and psychosocial and recreational activities for IDPs (which could be covered by sclr initiatives). General information received throughout the visit was that aid is increasingly scarcer. 

All in all, this trip was successful, as we learned about the current needs of IDPs in the Chernivtsi oblast and we met with potential future partners and facilitators for the survivor and community-led response (sclr) projects.  

It is to be decided whether HEKS/EPER Romania will continue to intervene in this region through different projects. However, the oblast’s dire conditions and poor situation tip the balance to such a future strategic direction. 

The IDP shelter at the local school in Tysivtsi: 

Meeting at the Mayor’s Office in Nedoboivtsi: 

The Veterinary Dormitory in Kitsman: 

Filadelfia Center in Hertsa: 

Psychiatric Hospital in Krasnoilsk: 

Regional Center for Psychosocial Support, Chernivtsi: