Ukraine Response Romania team visit to Chernivtsi, July 2024
Ukraine Response Romania team visit to Chernivtsi, July 2024
Within the framework of the project funded by Swiss Solidarity and implemented by HEKS/EPER Foundation in the region of Chernivtsi, in collaboration with AREAC, the implementation team from Cluj-Napoca carried out a new field visit between July 24-26, 2024. The project aims to provide sclr (survivor and community-led responses) micro-grants to local initiative groups, composed of both internally displaced persons and local community members from the Chernivtsi region. In the first phase of the project, 30 local initiatives were implemented (by the end of July).
This visit had multiple objectives:
- an in-person meeting of the evaluation committee to select the winners of the sclr applications received for the second phase of the project
- visits to several sclr initiatives to receive information directly from the final beneficiaries about their experience with the activities carried out by the groups.
- a learning event with the people involved in the first phase of the project (leaders of the initiative groups, representatives of NGOs directly involved in the activities or with administrative support role, local partners and HEKS/EPER team) for the purpose of evaluating the impact of the first round.
On July 25, after each evaluator read the applications and left votes according to each selection criteria prior to the in-person meeting, the selection committee reunited in Chernivtsi and discussed the best applications received, one by one. In the end, the committee deliberated and 41 initiative groups or local civil organizations were selected to receive sclr grants that they would implement between August and November 2024.
In the second half of the day, a part of the HEKS/EPER team conducted monitoring visits in the city of Chernivtsi, where people, both locals and people relocated to the area from conflict areas, opened up about how these community-led projects contribute to improving their living standards. Some aspects that were mentioned were related to improved mental health and better social integration of IDPs in the region through access to educational services for children, training courses for adults, sports activities, etc.
On the last day, the HEKS/EPER and AREAC teams focused on hosting the guests who came to the learning event to share about their experience with the first round of sclr implementation. The participants were invited to reflect on the principles of this approach and think retrospectively about their applicability to our project. Later on, in groups, each participant was asked to answer the following questions: what they think went well, what didn’t and what can be improved in the future.
We are grateful and happy for everything we have achieved so far! We are thankful for our partners and all those who have decided to get involved to the benefit of their local community and take the responsibility of implementing a project from start to finish.
We continue our intervention in the region as we strive to facilitate a better living standard for those who fled their homes in search of refuge in Chernivtsi, but also locals who face increasingly difficult conditions due to the war crisis.
