Since 2 March, the Estonian Refugee Council, with the support of Estonian donors, has already provided multi-purpose cash assistance to 5,077 households, or more than 15,000 people, in Ukraine. According to the official statistics of the UN, the Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) in cooperation with its local partner Unity for the Future (UF) has reached the most people in Ukraine with multi-purpose cash assistance.

Check the full overview here.

According to the UN, 15 organisations are providing or planning to provide multi-purpose cash assistance in Ukraine, reaching more than 18,000 people as of the end of March. The Estonian Refugee Council was one of the first humanitarian organisations to start providing multi-purpose cash assistance, having already supported more than 15,000 people. The allowance is 2,220 Ukrainian hryvnia, or approximately 70 euros per household member.

“Money-based aid has many advantages. This allows the beneficiary to judge themselves what they need most: whether they lack food or hygiene supplies, warm clothes or medicines, whether they need to pay the electricity bill or rent for a temporary home, or whether the money needs to be saved for a possible evacuation,” said Eero Janson, Director of the Estonian Refugee Council. He added that such aid also leaves donation money in the destination country and supports the local economy, rather than spending it on the storage, transport and sorting of material humanitarian aid. According to the UN, multi-purpose cash assistance is the main way to support civilians in areas where banking systems and markets are functioning.

“Since the first days of the war, we have supported women and children, people with special needs, the elderly, the most vulnerable who need assistance and cannot cope with this crisis alone. We have been in contact with the beneficiary households, and they have used the assistance on the most essential: food, especially baby food, medicine, water, toiletries. This assistance also helps people leave cities that are surrounded or under attack from the air. Our sincere thanks to the people of Estonia and the Estonian Refugee Council during these difficult times. This is not only material aid, but also the feeling that we are not alone at this difficult time,” said Tamara Ogorodova, Head of the Estonian Refugee Council's Ukrainian representation and partner, Unity for the Future.

The Estonian Refugee Council’s team in Ukraine consists of 16 members on the ground, who are involved in the daily assessment of beneficiaries’ needs, the provision of multi-purpose cash assistance to them and the monitoring of the situation. Main beneficiaries are families who have lost their home or a family member, or whose family member has been wounded in hostilities, or who live in isolated cities. The main areas of Estonian Refugee Council’s humanitarian intervention are the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kiev, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv and Chernihiv districts. 

In addition to multi-purpose cash assistance, the Estonian Refugee Council supports hospitals in Eastern Ukraine with medical supplies, food, generators, and other supplies, and distributes blankets and other essentials to people in bomb shelters. 

In total, as of 3 April, slightly more than 1 million euros have been spent on humanitarian aid in Ukraine, which has been covered by donations collected from the Estonian public.

The Estonian Refugee Council has been providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine since 2014. The Estonian Refugee Council is a humanitarian aid organisation certified by the European Union.

Header image: Orin Louis Jones, Kiev

The Estonian Refugee Council thanks all donors!