ReliefWeb

The “Early Recovery of Social Services and Peacebuilding in Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts” Project will start restoration at 15 new sites in Eastern Ukrainian. This was decided at the Project Board meeting comprised of representatives of UNDP, the Embassy of Japan in Ukraine, the Ministry for regional development, construction and housing and communal services of Ukraine, and UNICEF. The Project plan includes restoration of buildings for social services as well as conducting training for personnel.

“We have been collaborating closely with the Government of Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk Oblast State Administrations, and local municipalities to choose social institutions that provide services to the most vulnerable groups of the population. Among such institutions are kindergartens, centers for people with disabilities, and retirement communities. While preparing the second “wave” of sites for restoration and rehabilitation, we paid special attention to the importance of these facilities to the social infrastructure of the region, with particular emphasis on strategic development of social service providers in those two oblasts. Since social integration of IDPs and support to local communities is one of the key issues, we will support initiatives that aim to address those problems,” said Yuriy Savko, Project Manager.

The Project will help local authorities and activists to create some new services almost from scratch. This is mainly because many social and medical institutions at the oblast level were located in the non-government-controlled area. For example, local communities now have no access to specialized medical care.

Thus, the Project will restore and help to create the following sites in the Donetsk oblast:

• Center of social services for elderly people living alone, Artemіvsk

• City Center of social services for families, children and youth, Artemivsk

• Center of social integration, Bilytske

• Secondary School #10, Dobropillya

• Center for social adaptation and rehabilitation “Tviy Shans” (a local NGO), Dobropillya

• Hospital #2, Druzhkivka

• Eastern Center of Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities, Druzhkivka

• Regional Mother and Child Center, Kramatorsk

• Blood Donor Center, Kramatorsk

• Regional Center of rehabilitation of drug addicted young people, Mykolaipillya

• Multifunctional Center of social services for IDPs, Sviatogirsk

• Rehabilitation Center for young people with disabilities, Sloviansk

The Project will also restore the following sites in the Luhansk Oblast:

• Kreminna Rayon Center of social rehabilitation for children with disabilities, Kreminna town

• Rayon Hospital in Kreminna (Raion medical association)

• Lugansk Regional Hospital (building a surgery department)

As was reported earlier, eight social institutions were selected at the first stage of the Project: centers for social and professional rehabilitation for people with disabilities, kindergartens, and a retirement community. In addition, another component of the Project will take care of renovating schools in order to provide a proper environment for children and teachers (nine sites in total); UNICEF is in charge of this component. __

The “Early Recovery of Social Services and Peacebuilding in Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts” Project is implemented by UNDP and funded by the Government of Japan. The Project is being implemented in cooperation with the Government of Ukraine, regional and local authorities, and UNICEF. The main objective of the Project is the restoration of social services for the most vulnerable citizens.

The Project is funded by the Government of Japan under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s commitment of assistance to Eastern Ukraine, announced at the UN General Assembly in September 2014. The overall financial support from Japan to Ukraine during the independence period exceeds $2.9 billion.