• Let's meet – Jaryna, Estonian Refugee Council volunteer

Humanitarian aid in Ukraine

What we are doing?

• Implementing multi-purpose cash assistance so people can decide themselves what they need the most. As of now, we have supported 24 3656 households (ca. 75 000 people). In total, we have mediated aroud 11 million euros cash based support (Estonian donors + WFP + OCHA). The support allowance is 2220 UAH (= about 70 EUR) per household member. At the moment, we are able to support an average of 1000-1500 households a day.
• Supporting hospitals in Eastern Ukraine with medical supplies, food and other necessities (e.g. generators).
• Handing out blankets, sleeping bags and other essentials to the people in bomb shelters and temporary accommodation. Following weeks, we will distribute 4600 sleeping bags in accommodations for internally displaced persons in Zaporizhia.
• We are part of the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI), under which we help the humanitarian sector maintain a consistent overview of how and where in Ukraine markets are operating, whether and how fast basic necessities prices are rising, and so on. Our area of responsibility is the Zaporizhia oblast, more specifically the city of Zaporizhia and the settlements of Vilniansk, Bilenke, Kushugum and Shyroke.

In addition to the support of Estonian donors, we also carry out cash-based assistance with international partners:

• With the World Food Programme (WFP) we support 60 500 people in the Kiev, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts with multi-purpose cash assistance.
• With the funding from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) we will within three months provide cash-based assistance in total to 12 000 people in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts.
• With the funding of  International Rescue Committee (IRC) 21 000 people in Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kiev, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions will receive 3-month cash support. 

Supporting war refugees in Estonia

What we are doing?

• The Estonian Refugee Council’s counselling center in Tallinn (Liivalaia 28) continues to counsel both refugees and their loved ones every workday. An information hotline is open for Ukrainian refugees and people helping them: +372 5881 1311 (every day from 10 am to 5 pm); also e-mail: dopomoha@pagulasabi.ee.
• We mediate accomondation offers from our database. Of all the offers, we have already mediated around 900 households. Upload your accommodations to special Kinnisvara24 portal. 
• We have started various group counselling’s for Ukrainians on four different topics: adaptation, field of work, digital skills and supporting a child's adaptation. Already nine digital skills, one adaptation and one child's adaptation workshops have taken place in Tallinn and Tapa and almost 60 Ukrainian refugees have participated.
• We offer support groups led by psychotherapists. To register for the group, call the Tallinn Psychological Crisis Center on 631 4300 (Mon-Fri 9-19, Sat 10-15).
• We started paying school support. Currently 1089 applications have been received and support has been paid to 640 applications and 815 children, in total of 40 750 euros. The remaining applications are under data review and verification is underway.

Donations and use of donations

• Around 5 million euros has accumulated in donations for the Refugee Council, including targeted donations made for organizing evacuations and donations for activities in Estonia. Of this, 2,1 million euros has already been spent on giving humanitarian aid in Ukraine and 555 000 euros on evacuations. We have paid out school supports in the total amount of 40 750 euros.

We make transfers to our Ukrainian bank account in instalments (500 000 euros each), to minimize financial risks. We constantly keep at least a week’s expenses worth of prepayment and a crisis reserve in our Ukrainian bank account (e.g. if the situation changes so that our local coworkers have to evacuate Zaporizhia). Estonian Refugee Council’s administrative costs are about 3000 euros per month (office rent, utilities, telephones, internet, etc.). These costs are covered by various projects, we don’t cover them with donations.

All our financial reports are audited annually. If you want more detailed information, please send an inquiry to info@pagulasabi.ee.

In addition

• ​More about school support
• More about group counselling
• How the money from Estonian donors helps to save lives in Ukraine
• Eero Janson: People in Ukraine need money, not things
• How we organized evacuations for over a month
• Story about Estonian woman who opened her home to refugees
• More about the cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP)

Donations for the Estonian the Refugee Council can be made on our donation page and For Ukraine campaign page.

Estonian Refugee Council is a non-profit association founded in 2000 and operating in the public interest, with the aim of standing up for the rights and well-being of refugees in Estonia and abroad. Estonian Refugee Council is a humanitarian aid organization certified by the European Union. In Eastern Ukraine, Refugee Council has been providing humanitarian aid since 2014.

Photo: sleeping bags that will be distributed in Zaporizhia oblast, Eero Janson