Introduction
Since the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces in February 2022, countless lives have been lost and families torn apart. Almost 8.3 million refugees from Ukraine have fled across Europe, almost 5 million registering for temporary protection and other national protection schemes, making this the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two. Volunteers, community initiatives and the international community responded quickly to the influx of people into Ukraine’s neighbouring countries.
Ground Truth Solutions is supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)’s member agencies and their partners to demonstrate their Core Humanitarian Standard commitments, to listen to Ukrainian voices in host countries, and improve programming by better understanding the perceptions, priorities, and feedback of displaced people.
We have conducted two rounds of quantitative and qualitative research with people in Ukraine and a social media survey as well as in-depth interviews with refugees from Ukraine in Poland, Moldova, and Romania. For this report, we interviewed persons with disabilities, people living with chronic illnesses, women with children, Roma community and young people. Based on these interviews we created nine personas to represent different groups of refugees from Ukraine:
In Poland:
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Svitlana: a 65-year-old woman with a disability, who is struggling with access to medical services in Rabka Zdroj;
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Maria: a 27-year-old Roma woman and mother of three, who lost her documents at the border when leaving Ukraine and now has limited access to aid in Warsaw;
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Yana: a 37-year-old mother of two, who is looking for child-care support in order to be able to find a job in Slupsk.
In Moldova:
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Natalia: a 29-year-old mother of three, who is struggling to ensure a safe environment for her children in Causeni;
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Petro: a 51-year-old man with a disability, who finds it difficult to access humanitarian and medical assistance in Balti;
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Olena: a 19-year-old student, who lacks an appropriate study space for her online learning in the refugee centre and is missing social opportunities in Edinet.
In Romania:
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Iryna: a 45-year-old woman with two children, who are suffering from psychological distress in Constanta;
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Ivan: a 55-year-old man with a disability, who moved to Romania with his wife and two children in Galati;
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Vasyl: an 18-year-old man, who has managed to gain a scholarship at a Romanian university in Dej.
Each ‘persona’ tells their own story of deciding to leave Ukraine, moving to another country, getting in touch with the host community, and accessing humanitarian assistance. Although each character is fictional, the stories presented are real and based on hours of interviews with refugees from Ukraine in these host countries. Read more about the methodology at the end of the report.