Ukraine - IOM Ukraine has launched a cash-for-work initiative funded by the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to help 400 vulnerable Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and host community members in Eastern Ukraine.

The project aims to improve the municipal environment and infrastructure in ten villages and towns located close to the contact line in the government-controlled part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

According to UNOCHA estimates, about 800,000 people are living along the contact line – 200,000 of them in government-controlled areas. The new initiative will target IDPs and community members who were not initially covered by other assistance programmes.

According to a Donbas community needs assessment conducted earlier by IOM, about 60 percent of both IDPs and locals in the conflict-affected East of Ukraine are in need of employment support.

IOM’s cash-for-work project beneficiaries will receive an equivalent of USD 100 for 20 working days. (The minimum wage in Ukraine is about USD 60 per month.)

“Beyond providing material support to the most vulnerable, this intervention is also indirectly contributing to much needed social cohesion by improving integration of IDPs into the host communities,” said Vyacheslav Syrota, the head of the Population Self-Organization Coordinating Committee in the town of Dymytrov. Around 24,000 people are officially registered as IDPs in Dymytrov, increasing by 50 percent its pre-crisis population of approximately 50,000.

Similar feedback was received from Zolote, a little town along the contact line, where the cash-for-work activities started in late May, involving a total of 23 beneficiaries, many of whom had not been employed for almost two years.

“I was feeling useless before, unable to contribute to my family’s income, which barely allows us to reach the end of the month,” says Svitlana, one of the project participants. “But now I can bring home some money and also do something for the whole town. The rest of my family joined me, even if they are not part of the programme. Since we have to live here, we might as well make it a better place!”

It is the first time since the beginning of the conflict in 2014 that the people in Zolote had access to some of the districts of their town, which local authorities have only recently started to clear of unexploded ordnance left by the conflict.

Project participants cleaned up a children’s playground that had been hit by a shell during the conflict. “It fell right here,” said Valeriy, pointing at the crater. The cleaning was done with brooms that some of the beneficiaries had made themselves. They have now decided to manufacture a few more and barter them for paints and lime to paint the playground and the trees along the town’s main streets.

IOM’s cash-for-work activities are part of a three-pronged intervention targeting the most vulnerable IDPs and other conflict-affected communities close to the contact line. They include the distribution of hygiene and winterization kits and a cash-for-rent programme reaching approximately 4,000 households.

For further information, please contact Varvara Zhluktenko at IOM Ukraine, Tel: +38 044 568 5015, Email: vzhluktenko@iom.int or IOMKievComm@iom.int