U-LEAD is currently running a training programme called “Steps for Specialists. Organising Work with IDPs – 2023”. The Vinnytsia oblast is represented by professionals from Shpykiv, Zhmerynka, Koziatyn, Bershad, Lypovets, Khmilnyk, Vapniarka and Raihorod municipalities that have been chosen through a competitive selection process.
More than 180,000 people who had fled the war in 2022 found shelter in the municipalities of Vinnytsia. Now they are rebuilding their lives in new conditions, looking for jobs, housing and space for development. What is the role of municipalities in this process and what can they gain from the large number of IDPs?
“The training programme covers six weeks of online seminars, workshops and training sessions for 96 participants from all over Ukraine. We discuss the main approaches and basic principles of working with IDPs, how to provide them with the support needed for their effective integration into community life. We want municipalities to look at IDPs as an opportunity for growth,” said Vitalii Shvets, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Vinnytsia oblast.
“Approximately 5,000 people transited through the Lypovets municipality, and now almost 1,000 live there. All of them receive assistance. It is essential to involve them in the life of villages, towns and cities. We conduct training and workshops for IDPs, introduce them to officials and seek opportunities to strengthen the capacity of these people. There is a programme to provide IDP families with seed kits. Our colleagues from other departments are looking for options to purchase agricultural machinery. A thousand people is a lot for our municipality, and communication can be challenging. But we want these people to become an asset,” says Olha Fomina, Deputy Head of the Social Protection and Health Care Department of the Lypovets City Council.
According to Ms Fomina, the value of participation in this training programme goes beyond the integration of IDPs. The experience of exercising municipal powers is also very useful.
After the cycle of workshops, there will be an online visit to one of the municipalities of the Poltava oblast, which will share the experience of its work with IDPs since 2014.
