Refugee babies and children get shelter and transport

As the humanitarian crisis intensifies in Ukraine our on-the-ground team of staff and volunteers in Lviv continue to provide shelter, transport and support to the growing number of refugees entering the region on their way to the border. Our priority is children, and most of the refugee families we are assisting are mothers travelling alone with small children. Among our efforts we have:

• Through our network helped to extract several mothers with children from the war zones to Lviv providing safe harbour from the shelling.  One woman, who had arrived with her children from the heavily bombed city of Kharkiv, sent us a note after staying in our hostel accommodation:

“Thank you for the hostel, your help and food!! This is our first night in peace.”

• Secured 65 beds for refugee mothers with children at five partner hostels in Lviv, which sleeps up to 80 people a night as babies share a bed with mothers.  A staff member or volunteer is responsible at each hostel to welcome refugees, help them with necessary paperwork for Lviv City Social Services, and connect them with other assistance or supplies when needed.  For example, we are buying baby food, and food staples that don’t require cooking, which refugees take for their onward journey.
• Rented two busses to ferry refugees to the border once or twice a day—one has the capacity for 20 people and the other for 30.  Trips are coordinated and accompanied by a staff member.
• Continued to distribute humanitarian aid (medicines, clothing, food, etc.) from our stock of supplies to give to refugees and other shelters who request help from us.
• Provided transportation for refugees stranded at the central Lviv train station – volunteers are using their personal cars to pick refugees up at the train station to take them to our shelters, and to drive people to the border. Without the transport offered by these volunteers, refugee mothers are forced to walk for an hour at night to our hostel for shelter. We have special documents which allow selected volunteers to drive at night (after curfew) and to the border.
• Intensifying efforts in Germany to facilitate resettlement of inward bound refugees through a volunteer network; currently we are securing temporary housing for families and developing an integration scheme in coordination with local authorities. 

Thank you so much to all who have given so graciously and generously during this period!  However, your donations and help are needed more than ever given the rapid increase in demands for our services amidst the incredible influx of those fleeing the war zones.  Care-in-Action is on the ground helping those in need; your help is funding those direct humanitarian efforts.  Thank you again!