The six-month project is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the NGO "Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo" (VIS) in three areas of the country: Lviv, Žytomyr, and Ivankiv, the latter part of the Kyiv region. These areas are home to the bulk of the more than 6.28 million internally displaced persons.
The project aims to address these needs and will seek to support the vulnerable population until the end of 2022, via multi-sectoral intervention: a mobile unit will travel to 12 villages to provide psychosocial support; 1,000 hot meals per day will be distributed in Lviv and Zhytomyr province, thanks in part to synergy with the Department of Civil Defense, which has provided 4 field kitchens.
In anticipation of the coming of winter, efforts will also be made to help people restore their destroyed housing through the distribution of kits for small and medium emergency repairs of houses, particularly in Ivankiv province, where 2,360 homes have suffered damage. To these people, blankets, winter clothes, stoves and fuel will also be donated.
Recreational and psychosocial activities have been planned for girls and boys, including interventions aimed at using free time in cases where children cannot return to class, either because schools have been destroyed or damaged or because those without suitable air-raid shelters have not been reopened.
This project is part of the broader program carried out by the coordination of Salesian entities active in international solidarity (Fondazione DON BOSCO NEL MONDO, Fondazione Opera Don Bosco onlus, Fondazione Opera Don Bosco nel Mondo, Missioni Don Bosco, and VIS), which since the beginning of the conflict have joined forces to respond more effectively to the Ukrainian emergency.
This synergy, thanks also to the support of the Polish government and the City of Lviv, has made it possible to set up "Mariapolis," a modular citadel that has been housing 350 people for six months. The Salesians are involved on a daily basis in the material and spiritual care of the people housed in the camp: educational and recreational activities for children, psychosocial assistance, and distribution of hot meals.
