Participatory Practices in Emergency Assistance for Displaced People in Ukraine and Germany 

Informal Communication Channels: Good Practice from the District Lichtenberg of Berlin

Speaker: Zhanna Kramer, Coordinator for Community Work in the Lichtenberg District of Berlin

In the first months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, many Ukrainians fled to Berlin, a city which became a central point of arrival. For some of them Berlin was their final destination, while others only stayed for a few days or weeks and continued their travel further. Informing people about services and offers of the district was very difficult because many people did not stay in shelters but in private households with their friends, families, or volunteers. In order to reach them Zhanna Kramer (who is a native Ukrainian herself) and her team in the integration office of Lichtenberg decided to create a Telegram group for informing people about different offers of the district and where to receive help or information. Currently (September 2023), in the district of Lichtenberg, Ukrainians are the third biggest community with around 5,000 people registered.  

After the first arrival and emergency response the focus shifted towards integration of these people. The district supports them with education, kindergarten access, housing, and integration into the job market—through Telegram and Ukrainian diaspora organisations. This informal communication and assistance is seen as a good practice by the overall Berlin administration and was specifically mentioned in the “Action Plan Ukraine in Berlin: Complementing the Overall Concept for the Integration and Participation of Refugees”, which is a major policy paper that was created in collaboration with the civil society—especially Ukrainian organisations—and the administration of the districts together with the Division of Berlin’s Integration Officer in the Senate Department for Labour, Social Affairs, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination. The Action Plan is an important policy paper which focuses on different fields of integration and policies as well as practices in the integration process of Ukrainians who have been coming since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Leadership and Participation Programm of IsraAID Germany e.V.: Good Practice for Emergency Response and Integration

Speaker: Alissa Rentowitsch, Leadership & Teilhabe group facilitator, IsraAID Germany e.V.

Alissa Rentowich is one of the three facilitators of the Project ‘Leadership and Participation’ of the humanitarian and social NGO IsraAID Germany e.V., which offers humanitarian assistance among others within Ukraine and works with local NGOs. At the same time, they help with the social inclusion of displaced people from Ukraine. The “Leadership and Participation” program aims at empowering people who came to Germany as a consequence of the war — first of all through social engagement and volunteering activities. Participating in their own aid operations helps participants regain their self-efficacy, which is an important first step towards a successful integration in a new country. Aid operations include for example visiting nursing homes, organising and distributing food to homeless people, cleaning up around town, helping in community shelters, and much more. The program runs for approximately 6 months for a group consisting of up to 15 Ukrainian refugees. Each group meets once a week and plans the next aid operations together with the facilitator. At the end of the program, participants receive a certificate. 

Emergency response of non-governmental organizations in Ukraine: Experience of Charitable Foundation “Right to Protection” 

Speaker: Anastasiia Burau, Advocacy Coordinator, CF “Right to Protection”

The Charitable Foundation “Right to Protection” has been helping IDPs since 2014. However, the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine caused new challenges in the activity. The Foundation tried to adapt to the actual needs of internally displaced persons: they refocused the Foundation’s activities, moved many offices to the west of Ukraine (because the main flows of IDPs went there), tried to monitor the problems of IDPs and quickly respond to them. In the first part of 2022, the Foundation’s main activity was aimed at providing IDPs with material and humanitarian aid — food, hygiene products, and household items. Then, the focus of activity shifted to providing equipment, improving conditions in places of compact living, increasing inclusiveness, and arranging bomb shelters.

The main challenges in the Foundation’s activities were ensuring safety for both workers and aid recipients, adapting to work in new regions, developing strategies for coordinating the needs of IDPs and opportunities for assistance from partners, and lack of logistical routes. To overcome difficulties, the following solutions and approaches were helpful for the Foundation: coordination of project implementation with local authorities, involvement of volunteers and IDPs in the activities of support providing, formation of temporary teams depending on the project needs, application of various methods of monitoring the needs of IDPs.

During its work, the Foundation noticed a number of problems that make it difficult to settle IDPs in local communities: perception of IDPs as a burden, inability to quickly respond to housing needs, differences in labor market offers and qualifications of IDPs, inactivity of older IDPs. The Foundation sees the following steps as important for overcoming these difficulties: changes in the perception of IDPs, emphasis on the ability to participate in community life, development of additional solutions in housing policy, creation of dialogue platforms for IDPs, residents, and local authorities.

The Coordination Centres: how the community administration provides support for IDPs

Speaker: Vitalii Antonenko, Head of Bilokurakyne Village Military Administrations, Luhansk Region

The territory of the Bilokurakyne community, like many Luhansk region communities, was occupied in March 2022 and the population was forced to move to safer regions. To provide support for displaced people Luhansk regional state administration started the creation of Coordination Centres for the assistance of IDPs in many Ukrainian regions. Bilokurakyne Village Military Administrations joined these activities and created the Centre in Zhytomyr. This city was chosen because a significant part of the population of the Bilokurakyne community and representatives of the community’s authorities moved to the Zhytomyr region. The founding of such centres took place in cooperation with the regional state administration, the military administration of the regional communities, as well as the host communities.

In the Coordination Centre of the Bilokurakyne Military Administration displaced people from the Luhansk region can receive humanitarian assistance, social and psychological support, legal protection, and join cultural events. Help to support the Center’s activities was sought from international organisations, local authorities, volunteers, and charitable foundations of Ukraine. The activities and coordination of the Centre involve residents of the Bilokurakyne community who moved to the Zhytomyr region.

The founders of the Centre regularly conduct surveys of IDPs in order to identify their needs, adapt assistance projects to these needs, and to plan further activities more effectively. The administration also actively informs citizens about the possibilities of receiving support, so that every IDP can see this information and get help. There is also active cooperation with local authorities of the Zhytomyr region, in particular in the development of solutions to provide IDPs with housing and search for employment opportunities.

This workshop is organised by the German umbrella organisation for migrant organisations moveGLOBAL e.V. and the Ukrainian think tank Cedos as a part of a series of online events on “Strengthening the Participation of Displaced People and Migrants in Municipal Decisions on Emergency Assistance and Integration” as part of the Cross Culture Synergy programe funded by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA).