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Tag: refugees

Ukraine Conflict Response 2022

Ukraine Conflict Response 2022
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More than 5.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022 and it is the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. Neighbouring countries have seen waves of refugees crossing their borders, seeking safety and support. In addition, an estimated 7.7 million – or one in six people – are internally displaced. Many families have fled their homes with very little and the humanitarian crisis continues to grow as the conflict wears on.

GlobalMedic has worked closely with local Ukrainian partners over the years, and with our network of partners and Rapid Response Team members we are supporting Ukrainians who have been impacted due to the increased violence. Please consider a donation to our current response.

Moldova

Since the beginning of the crisis, more than 535,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Moldova. Our Rapid Response Team is on the ground in Moldova and is working with our local partners to support the intake of refugees into Moldova. We began by working to distribute food and hygiene items to refugees in Moldova, setting up on the Ukrainian border to provide immediate assistance to entering refugees and procuring additional items required by temporary shelters as they emerged. Our ready to eat meal program has distributed more than 8,500 meals to refugees in transit at local train stations, as well as to refugees staying in shelters.

We have set up an emergency food kit program in Moldova whereby kits are assembled which contain locally procured, culturally appropriate staple foods including rice, beans, potatoes and cabbage. These kits are then distributed to Ukrainian refugees and Moldovan host families, with some being transported back across the border to Odesa. We have distributed more than 8,100 of these kits.

Hot meals being served to Ukrainian refugees crossing the Moldovan border
A woman getting supplies at soup kitchen in Moldova
A child eating food at a soup kitchen in Moldova

Romania

More than 830,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Romania since conflict broke out in Ukraine. Our Rapid Response Team is on the ground in Romania running our operations. With our local partners, we are providing Ukrainian refugees with food, hygiene items and shelter. We are supporting the renovation of a dormitory to host additional refugees and are actively working to make sure that newly arrived refugees have access to support to meet their basic needs through the purchase of items like mattresses, bedding and cleaning supplies. We initially also supported aid convoys running cross-border operations into Ukraine. Daily humanitarian convoys were running in small vans to deliver food aid, hygiene items and medical supplies which have been distributed in several Ukrainian cities including Chernivtsi, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Ukrainian refugees crossing the border into Romania
Mattresses and bedding being set up for Ukrainian refugees

We have also set up an emergency food kit packing program in Romania. Locally procured food items are being assembled into kits by our RRT members and local volunteers. These kits are being distributed in Romania as well as across the border in Ukraine. To date, more than 3,200 food kits have been distributed through this program.

GlobalMedic volunteers in Canada have also been assembling emergency food kits which we are sending to support our Romanian operations. So far an additional 1,600 kits have been transported from Canada to our program in Suceava.

Aid being put together for cross-border delivery
Aid ready to be trucked across the border to Ukraine

Ukraine

We are working with our long time local partners in Ukraine to provide assistance to people who have been displaced due to the conflict. In Lviv, GlobalMedic and our partners have taken over a hotel restaurant to supply free hot meals to displaced people seeking safety from the violence. Our team has also set up at a train station in Lviv to provide those in transit with hearty food. We are also running this program in Odessa to support IDPs and local residents who remain there.

We are facilitating cross-border shipments into Ukraine. In partnership with Airlink, Air Canada and Ukrainian Medical Support, we sent a shipment of trauma supplies and essential medicines to support hospitals and displaced persons. This shipment was flown to Poland and then trucked to Lviv. We also supported a shipment of hygiene items from Poland to UNICEF operations in Lviv.

We have also flown a second shipment containing more than 7,000 emergency food kits assembled by GlobalMedic volunteers in Canada. These kits were also flown to Poland and then trucked to Lutsk. The kits contain pantry staple items as well as things like solar lights, water purification tablets, Procter & Gamble Purifier of water sachets, and some first aid kits. The first aid kits were designed by a GlobalMedic volunteer who has trained paramedic students around the world. Students from Humber College’s Paramedic Program created instructions on how to use the First Aid Kit on common, trauma-related injuries. Working with Humber’s instructors and students, GlobalMedic filmed instructional videos where Humber’s paramedic students demonstrated how to use the contents of the First Aid Kits and some of GlobalMedic’s Ukrainian-speaking volunteers translated and spoke in the videos so the instructions are clear for those in Ukraine.

Medical supplies being loaded onto and Air Canada flight
Meals being handed out to displaced persons in Lviv

Refugee Voices – Irina
Refugee Voices – Evhenia
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Our Response in Ukraine is supported in part by

Canadian-Ukranian Foundation Logo with text of CUF in English, French and Ukraine

Posted in ResponsesTagged Food, hygiene, idps, refugees, ukraine16 Comments on Ukraine Conflict Response 2022

World Water Day 2021

World Water Day 2021
Emma Graham – Emergency Programs Intern

Water is life. That’s what they say, right? We couldn’t agree more. Water is the most valuable resource we have, and this World Water Day 2021, we are Valuing Water more than ever. 

World Water Day began in 1993, as one of the United Nations’ Observance Days, with the purpose of paying a little extra attention to this important conversation. This annual event may be happening virtually this March 22nd, but it is still with the ultimate goal of achieving clean water and sanitation for all by 2030, as SDG 6. This World Water Day, the UN is highlighting the endless possibilities of water and asking us all to look a little deeper at what water means to our lives. 

Water has an imperative yet complex role in the global network. Access to clean water is a human right of all yet, it remains an ongoing crisis with over 2.1 billion people having inconsistent access. Lack of access to clean water is a vital piece of numerous global crises, so when clean water is more accessible, disease is reduced, global sanitation is improved, people are healthier, and the natural environment is better cared for. Water is not an infinite or replaceable resource – it requires careful use and protection, in order to be valuable to everyone. Right now, water is being misused, commoditized and monopolized, and it is not being valued for its potential benefit to everyone.

For the individuals experiencing crisis and disaster, clean water is a true rarity. Lack of access to clean water and bacteria-infected water has been an ongoing crisis in Bangladesh since the beginning of the refugee crisis in 2017. With more than 860,000 Rohingya refugees currently living in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh, the infrastructure is overwhelmed, and individual sanitation measures are compromised. Water is even less accessible and with the impending flooding from monsoon season, water is at even greater risk for cholera contamination. Refugees and host communities alike are experiencing inconsistent access to clean water as “more than 70% of households in Cox’s Bazar rely on tube-wells fitted with hand-pumps to collect their water”. “Recent water testing in several refugee camps found that at least 52% of hand-pumps show signs of e-coli contamination.”

GlobalMedic is responding.

In order to keep these communities safe and healthy, GlobalMedic provided 7,380 Family Emergency Kits to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in 2020. The kits contained hygiene items, a solar light and portable water purification system. The water purification system consists of two plastic buckets, one with a purifying system inside. The system offers a simple setup and allows portability, understanding that families may be displaced at any time but will always require access to clean water. Families rely on this system to provide them with the clean water they need for cooking, drinking, cleaning, washing and managing their daily lives. With this system, Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi families will decrease their likelihood of contracting cholera or other water-borne diseases and be better equipped to practice safe sanitation measures.

Water is an ongoing life-giving resource to individuals everywhere, but particularly in over-crowded places with underprepared infrastructures, such as refugee camps. GlobalMedic recognizes the multidimensional value of water worldwide and acts to ensure that everyone can access it. Because valuing water is about so much more than its monetary value and economic purposes – it is a source of life, health, prosperity and dignity. Today and every day, we need to truly understand the multiple and complex ways that water supports and affects life, if we are going to be able to protect it for years to come. 

What does water mean to you? Join the conversation. #WorldWaterDay #WWD2021

Posted in NewsTagged bangladesh, refugees, Rohingya refugees, water, world water day

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