Our Ukraine response: a photo story
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has caused wide-scale destruction and displacement: at the end of 2022, almost a third of the Ukrainian population, or 14 million persons were displaced, either inside the country or across its borders. The CEB was the first multilateral development bank to disburse grants for immediate aid to people fleeing Ukraine, followed by loans to several Bank’s member countries. To date, we have provided grant funding to 10 countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic as well as direct lending support to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Lithuania and Poland.
The CEB allocated €10 million in donor funds for assistance to refugees from Ukraine, channeled through the Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF), a trust fund set up by the Bank to help its member countries’ efforts to ensure that the basic human rights of migrants and refugees who arrive on their territory are safeguarded, such as having access to shelter, food, and medical aid, as well as personal security. We disbursed €6.9 million from MRF to provide aid to refugees through partner institutions, such as International Organization for Migration (IOM), or national authorities.
In this photo story we are bringing you snippets of what our financial aid is helping achieve on the ground.
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The neighbouring countries bear the brunt of the refugee influx, with millions of people arriving or transiting through their territory.
Newly arrived refugees often have questions about their rights and services available to them. To help orient new refugees and eligible third-country nationals, IOM works with host-community members to set up resource and information centres at border areas and capitals in neighbouring countries. In the picture, one of such info point in Hungary.
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In Hungary, IOM is actively supporting the national emergency response effort by providing information to arriving Ukrainians and third-country nationals through information points, like the one at the Nyugati train station in Budapest, pictured. The CEB is funding IOM Hungary with a €400,000 MRF grant.
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To provide relief to systems overburdened by huge numbers of people crossing into the Republic of Moldova, IOM and UNHCR quickly established a “Green Corridor” to help people move from the Republic of Moldova into Romania, where existing infrastructure was better equipped to handle the strain from such large displacement.
In this photo, Ukrainian refugees arrive in Huşi, Romania, after a five-hour journey by bus from the Ukraine-Republic of Moldova border crossing in Palanca, Republic of Moldova. CEB is supporting IOM Romania’s emergency response with two MRF grants with a total value of €942,000.
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A family from the city of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region came to the Michalovce Transit Centre for temporary shelter registration: grandmother and grandfather, a young woman, Natalia, and her two sons, Ilya and Maxim. Before the war, Natalia owned several stores but they were all destroyed. For a long time, the family managed to live in Ukraine thanks to its savings and help from friends, but it became impossible to survive as time went by. Once the family reached the Slovak Republic, the IOM’s frontline team provided them with basic hygiene items and comprehensive advice about the rights, benefits, and employment for Ukrainian refugees.
CEB is supporting IOM Slovakia’s emergency response with two MRF grants with a total value of €500,000.
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Galina Kulybashna is among the graduates of a Bulgarian language course, offered by IOM and funded by the CEB through the Migrant and Refugee Fund.
Intensive foreign language education is one of the most effective instruments for refugees’ timely integration in the host country. The specialised courses in Bulgarian are conducted according to programs and study materials specially prepared for the study of Bulgarian as a foreign language.
The main goal of the training is to improve the Bulgarian language skills of people fleeing the war in Ukraine and to support their social inclusion by making it easier to find a job and integrate into their new communities.
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Children are among the most affected by the war in Ukraine. According to the official statistics, Bulgaria hosts more than 20,000 children who fled the war together with their parents or relatives. Facilitating their integration into the Bulgarian education system is one of IOM Bulgaria’s key priorities. The photo above is from the first Child care centre for Ukrainian children in Bulgaria.
CEB is supporting IOM Bulgaria with a €400,000 MRF grant.
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Children, youngsters and adults are all deeply affected by the suffering, traumas and stress that the war has brought into their lives. Basic needs are only one part of the picture – another significant piece is taking care of refugees’ mental health.
Between the war, living in a new country, and the long winter days, there are many things weighing on their minds. So, to brighten their day, IOM Poland’s Psychosocial Team organised a visit to the Happiness Museum in Warsaw. Children enjoyed playing in the ball pit and on the carousel, while Olena, a photographer from Ukraine, took photos of the families. Caught in action in the photo above is Olena capturing some smiles.
As most refugee centres are in the heart of Warsaw, with little greenery around them, IOM Poland’s team realised that it would be nice to help their beneficiaries get away from the city for a while. Knowing that in Ukraine it is common to spend weekends at a “dacha”, a small cottage outside of the city, the team went out of its way to recreate this experience for the refugee community. To evoke the feeling of home they organised a picnic in a neighbourhood with a very similar atmosphere. Everybody could find something fun to do: from arts and crafts to ball games and swings, the picnic was filled with activities for children and adults alike. In the picture above, Ukrainian women and children are creating colourful decorations out of macramé thread.
The CEB is supporting IOM Poland with a €899,420 MRF grant.