How did the communities that had become a refuge for people driven from their homes by the war respond to the full-scale invasion? What challenges did they face and how did they organize support and assistance to IDPs? We strive to showcase the experience of different communities in Ukraine, to disseminate best practices of adaptation and integration of internally displaced persons, and effective interaction between local governments and new residents.

Read about this and more in an interview with Drohobych Mayor Taras Kuchma for Interfax-Ukraine.

A few quotes:
– “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have had about 20 thousand officially registered IDPs. But this figure can be immediately multiplied by three, because many people came to us for two or three days, many simply did not want to register.
– At the entry checkpoints, we handed out leaflets so that people knew where to go for housing, where to get food, where to get psychological help. We had psychological relief points, and separate ones for collecting information.
– …. We had people from Mariupol: they had a business, a family, apartments there, and then suddenly, in one minute, nothing was left. And we need to support such people, to give them faith that they are needed.

Learn more about the experience of different communities, in particular, listen to Yana Litvinova in our course “Adaptation and Integration of IDPs: Experience and Opportunities” on the educational online platform Zrozumilo!

The interview was prepared within the framework of the joint special project of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and the East Europe Foundation “Community Experience”, launched with the support of the Stiykist’ Programme, implemented by the East Europe Foundation in a consortium of NGOs led by ERIM (France) and funded by the European Union