Ukraine
You helped UNHCR assist 4.7 million people in Ukraine
Your generosity is helping UNHCR deliver life-saving assistance.
Ukraine
Your generosity is helping UNHCR deliver life-saving assistance.
As the war enters its second year, one-third of Ukraine’s population is still displaced. With your incredible support, UNHCR has reached over 4.7 million displaced and war-affected people inside Ukraine.
Together, we have provided refugees with cash assistance, legal aid, and psychosocial support to help ease trauma. We have also helped repair the homes of more than 18,000 people, keeping them safe and warm during the long winter.
Tamara, an 89-year-old grandmother, fled her home in January. As a young girl, even the Second World War could not force her to leave the town of Chasiv Yar, where her parents and grandparents are buried. But she says this year it simply became too dangerous to stay, with unrelenting gunfire and shelling, no electricity and constant fear.
“It became almost impossible to live,” says Tamara. “It was unbearable. We would sit in a room, always afraid and shaking with the cold. A shell broke through a wall in our house. We barely survived.”
Tamara had no choice but to leave everything behind, including her personal documentation and belongings, and flee to Dnipro, where she is staying with her 60-year-old son Volodymyr in a centre for older displaced people.
“Here, at least, it is warm when I sleep,” she says.
UNHCR is helping Tamara to replace her personal documents so she can access her pension and cover everyday expenses such as food and medicine.
Olena, 33, was evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol with her five-year-old son, Mykyta, in March 2022 after enduring weeks of Russian gunfire. Olena witnessed the conflict in Donbas eight years earlier, but is stunned by the scale of this war.
“It was so loud outside. We covered our children in blankets because they were still sleeping, and we left,” Olena says. “We heard everything, all the rocket attacks, the shelling, and we saw tanks approaching the city.”
Olena and Mykyta are now safe in Dnipro, where they are taking art therapy classes to help process the trauma of their ordeal.
Liudmyla, 59, lives with her husband, Mykola, in Borodianka. They spent two weeks hiding in their neighbour’s cellar when the attacks near their hometown intensified.
After a missile hit their roof, they managed to seal their house with construction film. But when a second missile landed in their yard, the roof was badly damaged by shrapnel. Liudmyla and Mykola are both pensioners and couldn’t afford repairs, so they enrolled in the UNHCR shelter program.
With your support, UNHR’s shelter teams fixed the roof so Liudmyla and Mykola have somewhere safe and warm to live.
“We have lived through a terrible time, but at least our house survived,” said Liudmyla. “Some neighbours lost their homes completely and now have to stay with relatives or live in temporary modular towns. With the repaired roof, we are very happy that we can stay and enjoy the safety and warmth of our own home.”
With your help, our teams:
With support from generous donors in Australia and around the world, UNHCR is providing life-saving aid for those in need.
Maryana Golovko has collaborated with Australian band The Bluesberries to produce the moving song Blue Skies.
Your generosity is helping UNHCR deliver life-saving assistance.
The majority of funds raised by Australia for UNHCR are directed to UNHCR’s emergency operations, providing the ready funds and resources to respond quickly and effectively in situations of crisis and disaster.