Emergency Humanitarian Support to Key Populations Affected by the War and Associated Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine
Donor: Elton John AIDS Foundation, EJAF
Project implementation dates: December 01, 2022 – October 31, 2023 – the 1st phase of the project
January 01, 2024 – February 28, 2025 – the 2nd phase of the project
Program implementers: regional partner NGOs, regional humanitarian aid coordinators.
Total budget: Phase 1: $775,000
Phase 2: $690,000
Project Goal: Resolving urgent problems and satisfying critical needs of representatives of the communities vulnerable to HIV infection
Geography of the project activities: all regions of Ukraine excluding temporarily occupied territories
Project target groups: representatives of the communities vulnerable to HIV, specialists from the HIV-services’ NGOs
Main project activities:
- Providing mini-grants to support community initiatives and build community capacity.
- Consultancy and referrals by regional humanitarian coordinators to representatives of the vulnerable communities to receive humanitarian assistance.
- Improving living conditions in safe places/shelters.
- Making educational events (including webinars, working meetings, trainings) to increase the initiative groups’ organizational capacity.
- Conducting a study of the impact of mini-projects on the quality of life of representatives of various communities during the war in Ukraine.
Results
- Providing mini-grants:
- In total, 118 mini-grants were provided to representatives of the KP for the period of December 2022 – October 2023. The total number of beneficiaries: 41,597 people, including: 19,890 PWID; 5,887 representatives of other groups (PLWH (among all key groups), MAT patients, convicts, family members); 3,722 gays, bisexuals and other men who have sex with men; 724 sex workers; 374 transgender people.
- During 2024, 136 mini-grants were provided to the initiative groups. The total number of beneficiaries covered by mini-project services was 17,157 people, including:
- Youth (10-24 years): 1,260
- PLWH: 2,904
- PWID (PLWH): 350
- Sex workers (PLWH): 9
- MSM (PLWH): 25
- MAT patients (PLWH): 62
- PWID: 7719
- Sex workers: 168
- MSM: 144
- Lesbians: 79
- Transgender people: 200
- MAT patients: 772
- Others (prisoners, tuberculosis patients, family members): 3,465
Main services provided within the framework of mini-projects:
- Humanitarian aid: 2,591 services
- Psychosocial support: 1,340 services
- Legal advice: 103 services
- Infrastructure improvements (repairs, furniture, equipment): 776 services
- Trainings and seminars: 139 events
- Medical services: 115 services
- Other (NGO capacity building, staff uniforms, organizational development): 116 services.
- Referral and consultancy by regional humanitarian coordinators: 9 regional coordinators prepared regional maps of humanitarian assistance and services in 10 regions of Ukraine: Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Cherkasy regions and the city of Kyiv, established interaction between the HIV-services’ NGOs and local humanitarian assistance providers. In total, since December 2022, the coordinators have counseled and referred 22,572 target group representatives for humanitarian assistance in the regions (11,042 PWID; 2,135 sex workers; 1,960 MSM; 1,651 users of non-injecting drugs; 1,505 relatives of target groups; 1,065 NGO/HIV shelter clients; 657 partners of PWID; 647 PLWH; 550 homeless people; 476 former prisoners; 372 IDPs; 243 MAT clients; 168 TB patients; 57 prisoners; 37 partners of PLWH; 7 transgender people. Regional coordinators conducted training on counseling and referring the vulnerable groups representatives for humanitarian assistance for 347 employees of the HIV-services’ NGOs, medical and social institutions (132 – administrative staff, 165 – social workers, 18 – volunteers, 32 – medical staff).
- Improving living conditions in safe places/shelters: A thorough energy audit of 10 shelters was carried out and its results were used for making detailed analytical reports for each shelter with recommendations for improving their premises and equipment. 10 shelters received funds for repairs and equipment upgrades in order to prepare for the upcoming winter period. All work was done in line with the recommendations of the energy audit reports. 219 representatives of the vulnerable groups lived in the renovated shelters during the winter.
- Carrying out educational events: During the project term, a social entrepreneurship training was held for the employees of HIV-services’ NGOs. It was attended by 22 participants from 16 NGOs. Also, a two-day offline training was done, it was attended by 25 participants who were mainly the organizations` leaders and the management. The training thoroughly covered the mini-grant implementation period and strategies for preventing professional burnout.
- Conducting research: “Assessment of implementation of the “Supporting Community Initiatives” approach for satisfying the urgent needs of representatives of the groups vulnerable to HIV during the war” qualitative research was made.
Contact: Maryna Varban , Project manager , Varban@aph.react-aph.org