Cologne/Lviv. In Ukraine, Malteser International is starting winter relief efforts for refugees and people whose homes have been destroyed. "Now that winter is coming and it is getting colder, especially at night, people's sufferings are growing. Refugees and bombed-out people are hit particularly hard by the cold," says Pavlo Titko, Head of Malteser Ukraine. "Many are living in makeshift shelters as some 140,000 homes have been destroyed in the past seven months. We received a call from an elderly lady who now lives with her chickens, dogs and goats in a barn because her house in eastern Ukraine was bombed. She doesn't want to leave her home, nor leave her animals alone. We will now insulate her barn and install a wood stove so that the old lady is prepared for the upcoming cold. She is just one example of the challenges people face in Ukraine," says Pavlo Titko.
To help the people affected by the war get better prepared for the coming winter, Malteser International will now deliver stoves, insulation material, sleeping bags, blankets, non-perishable food and warm clothes in Eastern Ukraine. Destroyed windows in homes will also be replaced. In the Kharkiv region, for example, winter temperatures can quickly drop to minus ten degrees or less. In the western part of the country, a refugee shelter is being renovated and five others are being supplied with electricity generators. Since the power supply also keeps failing in some places, generators, LED lamps and solar-powered power banks are being distributed.
"When the war started in February, it was bitterly cold in Ukraine. Now the next winter is already approaching, and my hopes that the war will end soon is diminishing by the day. That's why we have to prepare people for the cold season as best we can," Pavlo Titko concludes.
According to the United Nations, more than nine million people in Ukraine are currently in need of humanitarian aid, and more than seven million Ukrainians are displaced.
Attention editors:
Pavlo Titko, Head of Malteser Ukraine (German-speaking) is available for interviews and sound bites.
Operator: +49 (0)221 9822-7181, katharina.kiecol(at)malteser-international.org
Malteser Hilfsdienst e. V.
IBAN: DE10 3706 0120 1201 2000 12
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Keyword: "Ukraine-Help
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