The United Voices in Action program held the regional forum “IDPs integration: issues, solutions and the role of IDP Council” in Khmelnytskyi. Representatives of the government, business, and community discussed how to help IDPs build a new life in a new place. 

Khmelnytska oblast remains among the leaders in terms of the number of IDPs. Currently, nearly 157,000 people from other regions of Ukraine are temporarily living in the oblast. According to Volodymyr Yuriev, deputy head of Khmelnytskyi Regional Military Administration, it is extremely important to obtain information from each IDP about their needs and profession: 

“We have to plan our actions to assimilate people in our oblast, to get them fully back to normal, to erase the abbreviation “IDP” and to make them ordinary Khmelnytskyi residents.”

The IDP Council could become an effective platform for making strategic decisions regarding IDPs. Such a body will help to optimize the interaction between local authorities, charity organizations and IDPs themselves, said Serhiy Yatskovskyi, regional coordinator of the United Voices in Action program in Khmelnytska oblast. The initiative group has already been registered, and the Khmelnytskyi Mayor will soon approve its members:

“Today, most international donors say that the provision of ’emergency’ aid is coming to an end. That is, there is no longer a need for emergency assistance. Therefore, today we need to consider the issue of integration of IDPs into community life.  This requires strategic and long-term solutions. Starting with housing, where you can live for a long time; assistance in the development of IDPs’ business. But the most urgent issue is collecting information, creating a unified information base about IDPs: who are these people, what are their professions, do they need retraining, or maybe they are interested in something else,” says Yatskovskyi.

Among the key issues discussed at the forum were employment of IDPs and business support. In particular, more than 20 relocated companies from other regions have resumed operations in Khmelnytskyi, said Khmelnytskyi Mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn:

 “The main issue that we started working on is to enable people to realize themselves to the fullest extent. Today, we have people working in the municipal sector, almost 40 people employed in municipal healthcare facilities, and almost 50 people in educational institutions. We have given all active citizens the opportunity to find themselves as much as possible.”

The event is conducted in the frames of the United Voices in Action program implemented by IREX in Ukraine together with the Charity Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” and with the support of the U.S. Department of State.