Lvivska Oblast is one of the areas that has welcomed the largest number of IDPs since the full-scale war began in Ukraine. Officially, there are 245,000 registered IDPs, and unofficially the number is estimated to be twice as large.
Oksana Yakovets, coordinator of the United Voices in Action program in Lvivska Oblast, implemented by IREX in together with the Charity Foundation Stabilization Support Services and with the support of the U.S. Department of State, discussed the challenges and needs of IDPs.
Why do many IDPs struggle to find employment in Lvivksa Oblast?
The issue is complex for the Lvivska Oblast. Its magnitude can be assessed through statistics. Nearly 130,000 able-bodied IDPs have registered with the social security authorities in Lvivska Oblast, but only 9,000 of them are seeking jobs.
Many IDPs are not searching for work at all, hoping to return home soon.
What kind of help do IDPs need?
Problems often arise with payments and IDPs not receiving them in a timely manner. Cases exist where individuals have changed their registration location and forgot to notify the relevant authorities, causing confusion with their documents. Many people require legal assistance. Therefore, we provide legal advice as part of our program, guiding people on how to properly apply for payments, compensations, and register as IDPs.
Between November 2022 and March 2023, the United Voices in Action team in Lvivska Oblast provided over 200 legal consultations, including to people with disabilities. These consultations covered a range of issues such as registration for housing, restoration of lost documents, employment, securing affordable temporary housing, business registration, and IDPs’ rights to secondary health care, among others. People were also interested in the reasons for the delay in social payments, children’s rights to guaranteed free social services, obtaining a duplicate certificate of registration due to damage to the original, etc.
The problem of benefits and material support for families with children of MIA combatants turned out to be a complex one. IDPs can contact us for legal advice on these and other issues.
What problems do children from IDP families face in Lvivska Oblast?
In our visits to all of the Collective Centers (CCs) and modular towns in the oblast, we found that many school-aged children were not attending school. These children reside in remote villages with poor network accessibility, making remote learning impossible. Moreover, their parents can’t take them to school every day. A school bus could resolve this issue. It turned out that the Oblast Department of Education does not keep track of whether all IDP children of school age are enrolled.
Additionally, there are challenges associated with obtaining IDP certificates for children, and we continue to address this problem.
When basic issues for IDPs are resolved, a demand for self-actualization arises. Hence, we focus heavily on creative activities and playful learning. IDP children actively participate in integration activities, like the creative Evening of the Invincible we held during the regional IDP Forum.
How do you see the optimal model of assistance to IDPs?
Our aim is to make life much easier, offering prospects and opportunities for self-actualization. IDP Councils will aid with this.
These councils function as advisory, representative, and mediation bodies involved in developing and implementing regional and local policies, actively participating in local decision-making. An IDP Council already operates in the Chervonohradska community, and it is still in the process of being established in the Lvivska community.
There are nearly 8,000 IDPs in the Chervonohradska community, some of whom have been there since 2014. Lviv hosts 150,000 IDPs, making it more challenging to work with such a large population. However, we have held many meetings and have already formed a group of IDPs who can join the future council.
We are hopeful that civil society organizations will support us in this endeavor. The IDP Council will assist IDPs in better communication with local authorities to collectively overcome problems.
To develop effective solutions, the United Voices in Action program held a regional forum in Lviv titled “Integration of IDPs in Lviv Oblast: Problems, Solutions and the Role of the IDP Council”.
Government representatives, business leaders, NGOs, and the IDPs themselves discussed how to aid IDPs in their adaptation, self-realization, employment, and influencing their new community’s life.
The forum resulted in a resolution to establish an IDP Council in Lvivska Oblast.
Free legal aid and useful materials for IDPs are available on the United Voices in Action program’s website.
Source: Tvoe Misto