Emergency Support for Ukrainian Refugees

Five months have passed since Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) began its humanitarian aid project aimed at supporting the Ukrainian refugees who have fled their country following Russia’s invasion. Each day the news continues to show the horrors of this unjust war, and each day PWJ staff on the ground are witnessing the many ways in which it is affecting the Ukrainian people.

At the start of the conflict in February, PWJ dispatched staff to Poland to respond to the crisis, coordinating with local partner organizations in Ukraine to help provide much-needed assistance. Since then it has also set up operations in Moldova and in the Ukraine capital, Kyiv. 

New developments in PWJ’s operations in Moldova include the delivery of supplies to various refugee accommodation centres (RACs), including one set up inside a vocational college in Criuleni. It also includes the continuation of medical assistance in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, where PWJ has dispatched doctors and nurses and set up a clinic inside the local cinema, known as Cinema RAC. It is also working with local partners to extend facilities for refugees inside the building, including the conversion of a large room into a common room where refugees can hang out, away from their cramped living and sleeping quarters. PWJ will provide a large flat screen TV and other amenities for this room.

Cinema RAC is also a distribution center for a variety of supplies, which are distributed daily to over 600 families from Ukraine that have been displaced during the war. PWJ has been continuously providing such supplies to Cinema RAC since the beginning of the Russian invasion. It has recently added children’s diapers to those supplies after aid groups that had previously provided baby items withdrew their support. 

“Without this distribution, I wouldn’t know how to get diapers for my children tomorrow,” said Alina, who evacuated from Mariupol with her two children, and is one of hundreds who line up at the centre to receive supplies and other assistance. “It is a great help.”

Working with a local partner, PWJ has also set up a “smart classroom” for young Ukrainian refugees, who have found it not only difficult, but stressful, also, to study in the confines of their living quarters. PWJ has supplied 20 laptop computers for the classroom, which was set up inside the technical university in the Moldovan capital. By connecting these computers to the university’s wi-fi, refugee children are able to connect and study with their teachers back in Ukraine. One of the children commented that in the panic that ensued when she and her family evacuated from their home in Ukraine, she did not have the time, or luxury, to pack her computer, and this, plus the crowded conditions in her RAC, means she was falling behind in her studies. She was now looking forward to being able to reconvening her education. 

Also at the university, PWJ held an event on June 1 to commemorate World Children’s Day. Currently, there are about 60 displaced Ukrainian families, including about 80 children, who are being accommodated insidefour RACs set up inside the university’s dormitories.

The outdoor activities that were organized during the event, which was also attended by more than 100 Moldovan schoolchildren, included tug-of-war, dancing with character mascots, as well as enjoying sharingsnacks, such as popcorn and cotton candy. They also had fun on trampolines, go-carts, and other playground equipment that was set up for the event.

Such events have been organized due to concerns that opportunities for children to play are few and far between. Both children and their parents have also suffered from stress due to the prolonged evacuation and the cramped conditions in the RACs.

Olesia Shevchenko, the wife of the ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova, who also attended the event, said she was very grateful for PWJ’s “energetic support” both in this even and others PWJ has organized at RACs. “It is very important to organize such an event that can cheer up these children,” she said.

Meanwhile, PWJ doctors and other staff have been visiting hospitals in Chernihiv, one of the Ukrainian cities most heavily affected by the war. The No.2 hospital we visited was badly damaged by Russia’s indiscriminate missiles, both structurally and also due to the loss of some lifesaving medical apparatus. PWJ is looking at ways in which it can help, to replace such apparatus, as well as dozens of window units that were irreparably damaged by the blasts. It is also looking at ways to provide medical support on the ground, including giving assistance to overworked hospital technicians. With Ukraine experiencing some shortages of medical supplies PWJ also looked into ways it can assist with procurement, visiting one clinic that has had some success in this area, but needs more support.

PWJ doctors and staff also visited a center in the Oblast that works with children with disabilities, with the intention of working with the center as it tries to regain some sense of normality amid the conflict. One of the projects that has been implemented at the center is dog therapy sessions, where children are encouraged to interact with dogs, stroking, playing and walking them as a part of their education at the facility.

Dogs are also a part of another project in which PWJ is involved in Chernihiv – pet food distribution. On the outskirts of the city, close to an elementary school that was gutted by the Russian missiles, people arrived in droves to receive pet food for the hundreds of abandoned pets they continue to care for, One elderly lady said she is caring for more than 20 cats that had become strays. “Without this distribution service, I wouldn’t know how to feed them,” she said. 

PWJ is striving to continue to support such projects in the Ukraine and Moldova. But we cannot do it on our own. We rely on your support. Please continue to help us support the millions of Ukrainian people and their pets that have been devastated by this war. Thank you.

Support shelters with children and mothers shelters with children and mothers - go to video report

PEACE WINDS JAPAN PROVIDING ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES FOR UKRAINIAN REFUGEES IN MOLDOVA

Peace Winds Japan has delivered about four tonnes of supplies and goods to the largest refugee shelter in the capital city of Moldova.

The shelter, in the capital city of Chisinau, provides accommodation for about 300 people. Countless more refugees are staying at other locations in the city and use it as a collection point for food packages and other essential items such as clothing.

Peace Winds staff are working in Moldova to assist the refugees and today they purchased a large amount of goods from the Metro supermarket and delivered it to the nearby shelter using a tractor and large trailer provided by Chisinau City Hall Council.

Items donated to the refugee shelter include a large refrigerator, a microwave oven, 1,200 bags of rice, 1,200 bags of pasta, 600 cartons of apple and orange juice, 50 packs of nappies/diapers, 50 cartons of powdered baby milk and large quantities of shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste and tooth brushes.

Boris is the Head of the Directorate for Health and Social Protection Assistance with Chisinau City Hall Council and he said Peace Winds “is doing a great job here and I want to say they are very efficient”.

“They provide really immediate support with basic needs, so called critical support in assisting refugees from Ukraine and I have had a good interaction with the people from Peace Winds Japan,” Boris said.

“We formulated or identified a list of basic critical needs initially and they immediately provided all requested items and today we are very happy to receive all of them. 

“This means there is some basic needs for the kitchen for the refugees like a fridge, a thermos for hot water and also different food products. 

“I was very pleased to work with Peace Winds Japan,” Boris said

They are doing everything from the first second, being very efficient and less bureaucratic, an immediate response to all our needs. It has been a pleasure.

This is showing the solidarity of the Japanese people and the Japanese Government and this is a good example to us as an organisation, as a country to follow. 

We are very grateful for that and for all the support provided on behalf of Japan and thank you very much.

Ukrainian woman, Inga, fled her home town of Mykolayiv with her mother and daughter. She was lining up with other refugees at the shelter when Peace Winds delivered the donations today.

They are staying in a flat with a host family in Chisinau but eventually hope to move to the Czech Republic.  

We stay in a flat with local people and they provide us with food and they come here to the refugee shelter to get some clothes because we only have the clothes we had with us at the time,”

My daughter is now much better here because it is safer here and people are very friendly and help us.

Standing next to the trailer as the goods were being unloaded she was very appreciative of the work being done by Peace Winds to assist the refugees.

“I think the people who try to help it is a very good mission and many people now stay without food, without clothes, without homes so that is very helpful and thank you very much that you provide this help for us,” she said.