Mondo improved winter housing for Ukrainian IDPs

Mondo renovated and provided winter aid to ten accommodation centers in Eastern Ukraine, where hundreds of internally displaced people (IDP) reside. Having safe and warm accomodation helps them to survive the winter and supports their livelihood.

Liudmyla Ivanivna has been living in room 403 of the Kharkiv accommodation center for the past year. “It wasn’t in the best condition,” recalls the 61-year-old grandmother arriving to the center. Liudmyla lives in the room with her 12-year-old granddaughter Karina. They became IDPs a year ago when staying in their hometown of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region became too dangerous. Room 403, their new home, was safer, but the conditions weren’t the best. Winter cold seeped in through cracks of the old window frames, which the grandmother and granddaughter sealed with tape and cotton. New windows, a wardrobe, and a shower bring joy and make living more comfortable. However, hope remains to return home one day.

3.4 million displaced 

“Today in Ukraine, there are more than 3.4 million internally displaced persons who have been forced to leave their homes and start their lives anew. Almost a quarter of them (22%) are in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and an even larger number of internally displaced persons still live in conflict areas, not far from their homes. It is crucial that these people have a warm and safe place to live, with conditions guaranteed for maintaining their livelihoods,” says Mondo Ukraine project manager Viktoria Iškina.

During the past winter, Mondo supported ten accommodation centers in total as part of the project funded by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In two of these centers, the focus of the work was on window replacement and renovation work in cooperation with the local partner organisation Dobrobat. The Kharkiv accommodation center received 115 new windows, and 135 window frames were repaired. Fifty-three rooms received new wallpaper and paint, and six shower rooms and toilets were repaired. For the IDPs accommodation center in Zaporizhzhia, 2700 square meters of new PVC panels were installed, along with 245 new windows, and 1220 square meters of roof insulation layer were replaced.

Warm and safe home

“In this accommodation center, there are internally displaced persons and many students who couldn’t flee at the beginning of the war. But the living conditions in the center were very poor. The first thing I remember about the center is freezing rooms, old windows, and a leaking ceiling,” described Andrii Razin, Dobrobat’s coordinator for the work in Zaporizhzhia. “There is also a lot of bombing in this area. Even when we started construction work, there were seven rocket explosions nearby. But thanks to the work of volunteers and support from Estonian friends, we can provide warm and good rooms to families here.”

Providing warmth is a keyword for eight accommodation centers in the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. During winter many IDPs are forced to choose between warmth and food. In addition, they have to cope with possible power outages, which directly affects the operation of solid fuel appliances. Therefore, eight accommodation centers received support primarily for ensuring warmth. With the help of partner Angels of Salvation, the centers received a total of 107 tons of heating briquettes, 8 generators, 28 radiators, 32 power banks, 132 sleeping bags, and 16 fire extinguishers.

Throughout the project, Mondo, together with its partners, provided a safe and warm accommodation option for 493 people, with the ten centers able to accommodate up to 815 people. The renovation work started in December 2023 and was completed in February 2024.

Pictured, kids with a radiator in the accommodation center in Dnipro, which was one of the eight centers receiving winter assistance.