From Evacuation to Integration: East SOS Launches a New Project with Support from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund

Over 4.6 million people in Ukraine have been forced to leave their homes because of the war. For most of them, evacuation is just the first step in a long and challenging journey. Our team has witnessed hundreds of stories of lives shattered by the war, as well as hundreds of stories of recovery, as people find a new home, peace, and care once again.

The East SOS Charity Foundation has launched the MESH project as part of a consortium of humanitarian organizations coordinated by the Right to Protection Charity Foundation and supported by the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF). The goal of the project is to make sure that people are not left alone to face the challenges of war, while hromadas (communities) receive the resources they need for stabilization, recovery, and growth.

As part of the MESH project, East SOS is implementing the following activities:

• rebuilding and repairing housing, including the provision of construction materials;
  
• supporting critical infrastructure facilities, particularly water supply and wastewater systems;
  
• evacuating people with limited mobility and members of other vulnerable groups;
  
• providing information support for safe evacuation;
  
• helping people find temporary and permanent housing;
  
• providing assistive rehabilitation devices;
  
• supplying evacuees at transit centers with basic necessities and mobile phones, as people often arrive without basic necessities;
  
• equipping collective centers with backup power systems, heating, and stable water supply to ensure uninterrupted operation during power outages.

“Projects like this allow us to scale the approaches we have developed and make assistance more systematic. Over the past four years, the East SOS team has built a full evacuation cycle – from the first call for help to a safe place to stay. But we want to make it clear that our support does not end with rescue: people need homes, basic services, and help integrating into host hromadas. This kind of comprehensive support helps them rebuild their lives and avoid returning to danger,” said Anastasiia Kalinina, Head of the Project Department at the East SOS Charity Foundation.

The assistance is provided within the project “MESH: Multisectoral Emergency Support for High-Severity Hromadas,” implemented by the East SOS Charity Foundation, coordinated by the Right to Protection Charity Foundation, and supported by the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF).

As a reminder, East SOS has recently launched a new project with support from the Federal Government of Germany and the EU.