Ukraine: Ahead of winter season, ACTED repairs windows for internally displaced persons
Within the framework of the project “Emergency Response in Ukraine”, implemented by the partners of the Alliance2015, during September-October this year ACTED installed 143 window and 16 door metal-plastic blocks.
As critical infrastructure facilities, residential buildings, schools, hospitals are increasingly affected by air strikes in Ukraine every week, more and more residents from Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Chernihiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions continue to evacuate to safer cities like Bukovyna. Local authorities predict a new wave of Internally Displaced Persons for the winter and appeal to international humanitarian organizations for help.
The crucial role of collective centers in Ukraine
Currently, 88 collective centers have been set up in Bukovyna, accommodating 5258 Internally Displaced Persons in regional and municipal institutions and 5676 in private ones.
Ms. Raisa lives in one of the collective centers for internally displaced persons in Chernivtsi, in the western part of Ukraine, near the border with Romania. She came here with her daughter and grandson, having evacuated from Mariupol in May this year. Their family is accommodated in one small room of the dormitory of the educational building, where a space is dedicated to accommodating internally displaced persons is located on a separate floor. The simple furnishing consists of three beds, a wardrobe and a table. But the most important piece of this new room is the brand-new intact window, installed with the assistance of ACTED.
“During air strikes, windows are the first to suffer, – recalls Mrs. Raisa. During peaceful times, before February, Mrs Daisa shares memories, pieces of her grandon’s childhood.
Raisa V. seems to relive those moments, trying to describe the unique sound of glass shattering from the shock wave of explosions. “It is not necessarily the rocket fragments, but the glass fragments themselves, which cut into your body with force that can be dangerous,” warns Mrs. Raisa, as if this new piece of information got stuck in her mind forever. “We were taught by our neighbors not to close the window tightly, but when the rocket hit the house and pierced the wall, it didn’t matter whether the whole window was broken or not anymore.”
With the assistance of ACTED, new windows and doors have been installed in 6 collective centers where more than 1500 people live.
“A good window that does not let in the cold, from which you can see the peaceful sky, gives a sense of security, – says Valeriy from Zaporizhzhia, – from such a window you notice the autumn landscape, calm down, and faith in tomorrow comes. Thank you ACTED“.
Before the escalation of the conflict, it could have been considered interior renovation, now, we are in wartime, it is merely a way to survive the difficult winter looming in. With disappointing forecasts of possible power cuts, lower heating temperatures in the premises, reliable windows that retain heat are an answer to the challenges of war.
Author: ACTED
