After 6 months of full-scale conflict in Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians remain in immediate need of support. Across the country, the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) has worked together with local partners as part of its Joint Response to provide food and non-food items, multi-purpose cash assistance, and mental healthcare and psychosocial support to vulnerable households affected by the conflict.

In March, the situation across the country was opaque. There was a huge humanitarian need, but it was unclear where this need was concentrated and where help would be most effective. DRA partners hit the ground running, supporting people where they could. After a few weeks, the partners mapped where they could most effectively help out, scaling up relief efforts.  Regrettably, violence continues in parts of the country. Elsewhere, communities have settled into a sort of status quo. The basic needs remain:  millions of displaced people need all kinds of help, and the country needs a shift towards reconstruction.

Multi-purpose cash to meet urgent needs

Save the Children works together with Avalyst as part of the Ukraine Joint Response. Across the country, in areas including Dutska, Luhanska, Dnipropetrovska and Vinnytsia, Save the Children and Avalyst provide multi-purpose cash and non-food item kits. In the past 6 months, they were able to meet the immediate needs of more than 500 households.

Avalyst took on the responsibility of registering households, creating an inventory of their needs. After registration, Save the Children took care of cash disbursement, enabling families to determine their own spending on their immediate needs.

Next to non-restricted cash, Avalyst also distributed non-food items, handing Ukrainians in need things like basic hygiene materials, textile, and household goods. In this way, Avalyst and Save the Children help refugees and households to re-establish a semblance of their home routines.

By working together and communicating clearly with local communities, Save the Children and Avalyst have been able to adjust their aid provision to what these communities need. These strong links resulted in more efficient distribution and helped to avoid wasted goods.

Caritas Ukraine, Cordaid’s local partner in the Joint Response, has chosen to focus on distributing non-food items and hygiene kits. In areas around Dnipro and Kyiv, as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk, Caritas found that internally displaced people were most urgently in need of physical items that they lacked access to. Through its dioceses across these areas, Caritas provided emergency food packages, drinking water, warm kits and medical supplies.

Displacement, rising prices, growing needs

In Muchacova a town of 75.000 inhabitants where New Beginning works, an additional of 26.000 refugees from other parts of Ukraine have arrived – including many families with vulnerable children. New Beginning has been a partner of Dorcas for years, focusing on marginalised children. With the start of the Ukraine Joint Response in March, Dorcas and New Beginning have strengthened their partnership to meet the basic needs of refugees, providing food parcels and psychosocial support.

Internally displaced people (IDPs) get to know New Beginning when they come for food support or clothing. Through this first connection New Beginning is able to ask them their needs. IDPs are welcomed to join activities that incorporate elements of psychosocial support. Only 2% of IDPs ask for psychosocial support themselves because of feelings of shame and the taboo on mental health struggles. Good experiences with the children’s clubs lead IDPs to encourage their friends to participate, enabling more children to receive psychosocial support.

New Beginning offers a range of social activities, like a 5-day camp for children and a weekly children’s’ club. While the children play and take part in activities as part of the club, the parents – mainly mothers – go upstairs to have their own meeting and build connections with each other.

According to Alexandra, the Director of New Beginning, “if parents are at rest and show peaceful behaviour, children also develop healthy habits and feel less anxious. We focus firstly on the basic needs and on the parents – then by extension the children will recover. New Beginning has the aim to offer a new beginning. We follow our desire to help the people.”

Lasting partnerships

While the Ukraine Joint Response will come to an end in early September after 6 months, the partnerships established by working together will endure. The conflict rages on and needs remain. Reconstruction of communities, both in cities and in rural areas, will be a focus for the next months and years to return a sense of normality to the lives of Ukrainians.

The peer-to-peer approach under the Joint Response, characterised by trust and equal partnership, has already resulted in ideas and proposals for further cooperation after the end of the Joint Response. Working side by side to rapidly scale the response, overcoming together the myriad obstacles along the way, strengthened the abilities of both side of the partnership. Despite the formal end of the Joint Response, exchange of information, knowledge and best-practices between the Dutch and local partners will continue. Where possible, the DRA partners will support Caritas, Avalyst, and New Beginning, alongside other local partners, in their efforts to reconstruct their country.

The Dutch Relief Alliance Acute Joint Response in Ukraine is led by Dorcas in partnership with Cordaid and Save the Children, alongside a number of local humanitarian organisations. The work of the DRA in Ukraine is made possible in partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a small child, Agnes Kroese already wanted to ‘help people abroad’ and she ended up in South Sudan a few years ago. Since the beginning of this month, she is the new CEO of Dorcas. If you had told me this 10 years ago, I would not have believed you. But I am ready and looking forward to it.

Agnes is very excited to this new step and says: ‘Since my early childhood, I have felt called to dedicate myself to those in need. From close by, I have witnessed what Dorcas’ work means for people who are excluded, live in poverty, or in the midst of conflict and crisis. I have seen the glow return to the eyes of people who find themselves in the most difficult circumstances. I have seen communities flourish. That gives me hope. That motivates me. I would like to use my knowledge and experience to further develop and professionalise Dorcas, so that, together with everyone involved, we can realise a structural impact on even more lives.’  

Agnes looks forward to continuing her career at Dorcas as CEO and also Chairman of the Executive Board. Agnes: ‘From close up, I have experienced what Dorcas’ work means for those in need. The change in individuals and the flourishing of communities motivates me and gives me hope. I want to use my knowledge and experience to further develop and professionalise Dorcas, so that, together with everyone involved, we can realise a structural impact on even more lives.’ 

Agnes studied International Development Studies, and then took a Master’s degree in Emergency Relief. In her role as Country Director South Sudan, she has been actively involved with Dorcas since 2019.

Anatoliy Kurtev, secretary of the city council in Zaporizhzhia, has announced a new information campaign for Zaporizhzhia’s residents about the procedure for emergency situations. Dorcas is one of the partners in this new project.

Dorcas, together with Wodan Security International, proposed an information campaign to prepare the local population for evacuation should the need to evacuate arise. The aim of the campaign is to enable Zaporizhzhia’s residents to act quickly and safely in emergency situations. Particular attention will be paid to vulnerable groups. As part of the campaign, instructions will be prepared that explain each phase of an evacuation, the safe routes to be followed and what needs to be in the emergency suitcase. Dorcas Ukraine will also provide hygiene kits and assist in the setting up of shelters.

Cabo Delgado is a province severely affected by a complex humanitarian crisis with military tension, climate-induced problems and high levels of poverty. Recent attacks carried out by armed groups in Cabo Delgado have resulted in even more internally displaced persons (IDPs). The armed groups are continuing their advance south, attacking innocent people on the way. These attacks have forced people to flee, mostly to Chiure but also to other neighbouring districts.

Dorcas Mozambique has been active in Cabo Delgado province since 2021. Here it focuses on the District of Chiure with Food Security and Livelihoods, WASH and Humanitarian Recovery activities. Unfortunately, these activities are not enough to meet the huge needs of the IDPs. In Chiure district, most new arrivals live in emergency and communal shelters. Their major needs are food, transportation, dignity and hygiene kits, and non-food items, including kitchen kits and blankets. Dorcas aims to provide priority humanitarian assistance to IDPs who have just arrived in Chiure. We will target 2000 households with basic food and kitchen kits so they can prepare their own meals. These items will be distributed in the resettlement centres of Chiure Sede, Meculane, Chiure Velho and Katapua where most IDPs from the attacks in Ancuabe are found. Dorcas will focus on households with many children, persons with a disability or chronic illness, pregnant/lactating women and older people.

About Start Network:

Start Network was established in 2010. It aims to transform humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding, early action, and localisation. Over the next three years, Start Network will work across four complementary and mutually reinforcing areas to catalyse system change and drive more effective humanitarian action to assist and protect communities in need.

People affected by crisis or exclusion have various needs depending on their personal situation. Cash and Voucher Assistance has become a key delivery modality for addressing humanitarian needs as it supports people’s independence and dignity to decide on their own needs. The 121 Platform offers a suitable solution for Cash and Voucher Assistance with a Humanitarian Organisation Portal, Aid Worker App and Person Affected App. It aims to make cash-based aid easier, safer and faster so that people affected by disasters can meet their own needs. Dorcas conducted a pilot of the 121 Platform in Beirut, Lebanon, where host communities, refugees and migrants were supported with cash.

Lebanon is home to the highest concentration of refugees per capita in the world. Almost half of Lebanese citizens live below the poverty line and many urgently need humanitarian assistance. Lebanon has struggled with a history of war. Furthermore, the 2020 Beirut explosion had a significant impact on the country, which reverberates to this day. The economic and political situation is worsening and a growing number of Lebanese are becoming dependent on aid.

The pilot in Beirut

Dorcas Lebanon started the 121 Platform Pilot in December 2021 for a period of 3 months. A total of 485 project participants (members of the host community, refugees and migrants) disaggregated by gender, participated in the project.

Within the pilot, the following steps were taken:

1. Registration

A group of participants was selected and received a text message about the project. Also, a link was shared so that people could register their request for assistance directly in the Person Affected App via a smartphone. People could do this themselves at their own convenience but if they needed help, they could go to one of the community centres where Dorcas staff members were available to assist with registration.

“I was worried that the registration process might be complex, but that was not the case. The questions were clear and specific. It was very easy and smooth to use!”

Male participant

“When you register yourself, you are not ashamed of the situation. Some things are hard to share with someone.”

Anonymous participant

2. Validation

A total of 600 people registered. All registrations were reviewed and Dorcas Lebanon selected 485 project participants who were included in the project. A text message confirmed participation in the project towards the project participants. Other registered people received a text message informing them why they were not selected.

“With the Aid Worker App, validating has never been easier. When the registration was finalised, I immediately received a message with all of the applicant’s details. These can be viewed on a tablet or mobile phone and changes can be made when something is incorrect. And most importantly, the Aid Worker App works offline. Which makes it broadly usable in the field.”

Norma Nazarian (Social Worker and Case Manager at Dorcas Lebanon)

Findings:

• Using the Platform for selection and verification processes helped create confidence in the programme, supported a transparent selection process for the Cash and Voucher Assistance pilot and reduced conflict between community members about validation.
• Having an automated system of validation was perceived to remove potential personal bias.
• Verification and validation of registered persons affected by the Aid Worker App was especially appreciated.
• COVID-19 created new challenges on how to reach people affected and to provide inclusive, safe and quality Cash and Voucher Assistance without physical contact in communities. However, through the Person Affected App and self-registration, the 121 Platform enabled the remote registration of participants.

Lessons learned:

• Consider allowing two phone numbers to be linked to a registration.

3. Payment

The process of authorisation and payment of cash transfers can be handled and monitored online by designated responsible employees. The next step is to inform project participants regarding the payment via bulk messages. Relevant information, such as the amount of money they receive and where and when to collect this, is shared so that project participants can receive the cash.

Findings:

• Persons affected perceived cash distribution through financial services providers as easier, safer and faster than previous cash distribution by hand or through cash machines (ATMs).

Lessons learned:

• Coordinate with financial service providers to ensure the availability of cash in the right currency at all times at cash withdrawal points.
• Assist people with disabilities and older people with transportation to withdrawal points if this is needed.

Aid Worker App and HO-Portal

The solutions within the 121 Platform facilitated data gathering and communication between the project participants and Dorcas Lebanon. The use of the Aid Worker App and the HO-Portal is very easy and efficiently supports the work. It helped to store data securely and ensured the safety of all parties, especially considering the COVID-19 situation in Lebanon.

“Using the 121 Platform helped us to manage our cash project and provide cash support. When people register, their information is immediately included in the HO-Portal. From here you can send people notifications and make payments. Everything that is needed to provide the support is visible. The HO-Portal is fast, easy to use, safe and very reliable.”

Samer El Jamal (Project Officer at Dorcas Lebanon)

Overall experience

Given the generally positive experience in Dorcas Lebanon, we will investigate the possibility of further deploying the use of the 121 Platform within Dorcas in Lebanon and beyond. The 121 Platform is a suitable platform for managing Cash and Voucher Assistance programmes in the context of Lebanon. The simplicity of all stages in the process makes it an easy-to-use system. As contexts vary, we still need to ascertain whether 121 Platform is a suitable solution in new emergency relief settings. However, based on the experiences in Dorcas Lebanon, 121 Platform is definitely a suitable candidate for streamlining cash interventions.

The flow of refugees from Ukraine to Romania seems to be decreasing, which has consequences for the assistance required. Dorcas Romania will now focus on long-term support for Ukrainian refugees, especially their psychosocial well-being and mental health.

The initial flow of refugees often aimed to travel further to relatives or acquaintances in Western Europe. Now those crossing the border have nowhere else to go and remain in Romania. This new situation requires a different approach to emergency aid.

Activities

The refugees are accommodated in churches and social housing facilities. Dorcas Romania supports these reception locations by supplying basic needs, such as food, blankets and hygiene materials. However, because the refugees are there for a longer period, we also provide activities, toys and creative materials, so they have something to do during their stay. And we ensure that children learn the Romanian language so they can attend school soon.

Psychosocial care

Now the refugees live in an unknown place, usually separated from their families. They have often seen and experienced terrible things and would benefit from psychosocial support to process everything they have been through. This support can be provided to Ukrainian refugees who stay at a location for longer and Dorcas Romania will start individual and group psychosocial care soon. Stress and how to cope with difficult situations are some of the topics that will be discussed.

Winter period

Dorcas is also planning ahead for the upcoming winter period. Although future developments are still very uncertain, many refugees are expected to remain in the country. Therefore Dorcas Romania plans to start a new relief project in which winter clothes and blankets will be distributed.

Dorcas published a report entitled ‘Falling through the cracks’, which concludes that, in Ukraine, older people are particularly vulnerable to suffering the consequences of the war with Russia. The researchers based their conclusion on previously published reports and recent information from Ukraine.

The report states that too little is being done to ensure that the help provided meets direct needs of older people. In the report, the situations in Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan and Ukraine are discussed, and it is concluded that the rights of older people are often not protected well enough. The report suggests a UN human rights convention for the rights of older people as a possible solution for generating more attention for the specific needs of older people.

Loss of social safety net and reduced mobility

One of the causes of the vulnerable position of older people in conflict situations identified by the researchers is the lack of available data. Insufficient measurements are carried out about how many older people stay behind in a certain conflict area, and what the specific needs of these people are. Another reason for the particularly vulnerable position of older people in conflict situations is the sudden loss of the social safety net. Some older people depend on their children, neighbours or acquaintances for food, drinks, medication and so forth. When that social safety net is lost, it becomes much harder for older people to access these basic resources. Furthermore, older people are in general less mobile, as a result of which fleeing to a safe region or reaching a bomb shelter in the case of shelling is difficult or even impossible. This means that, during conflicts, older people will often stay in their homes and are therefore more likely to suffer from artillery attacks or to fall into the hands of one of the fighting parties. This means older people are more likely to become victims of burglary, (sexual) violence or even murder.

Older people in Ukraine fall between the cracks

Stories of older people who stay at home because they are unable to flee are coming from Ukraine. Previous research from the original conflict area in East Ukraine, prior to the large-scale invasion on February the 24^th, reveals that 86% of older people have a limited mobility, with over 10% of interviewees being completely immobile. Furthermore, 98% of older people staying behind were found to suffer from one or more chronic illnesses, and 70% of older women had insufficient access to medical support. According to this same study, only 6% of older people in this particular conflict area have received humanitarian support during the past six months. These statistics reveal the vulnerability of older Ukrainians who are unable to flee.

In addition, prior to the escalation of February the 24^th, the war with Russia was known as the “oldest conflict in the world”. This means that the percentage of older people experiencing negative consequences due to the war is higher in Ukraine than anywhere else in the world (30 percent). It is therefore feared that, following the escalation, many older people find themselves in a perilous situation without appropriate support. As many residents of Ukraine have fled and the men are obliged to join the fight against Russia, it is feared that older people will end up falling between the cracks without the support they need to access basic resources such as food, drinks and medication. Dorcas therefore calls for more attention to be paid to the effects of armed conflicts on older people so that nobody is left behind.

The Beirut blast on August 4 2020, was one of the largest explosions in history that pulverised the port, and damaged over half of Beirut. The explosion had a significant impact on the country which reverberates to this day. The economic and political situation worsens, and more and more Lebanese become dependent on aid.

Dorcas Lebanon launched a livelihood project in response to the Beirut blast. The project supports micro and small businesses affected by the blast in Bourj Hammoud and Achrafieh. The project focusses especially on male and female technicians and artisans working in local value chains, both experienced and recently graduated. The project aims to strengthen the economic resilience of a selected group of entrepreneurs, giving priority to youth and women led businesses. At least 40 percent of the total number of project participants will be female entrepreneurs.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises project targets existing businesses that have not been able to recover and stabilise their business after the blast. It will provide participating entrepreneurs with training, tools and business support to strengthen their livelihood and life skills.

The project will support:

• 40 business owners in the beauty, art, hospitality, sports and crafts sectors and local value chains. How? Through in-kind support for repairing their shops, buying tools and equipment.
• 10 experienced technicians. How? Through tools to start and improve their work.
• 10 freshly graduated technicians. How? Through a support package of tools related to their major business activity. And in addition, through training and coaching on life and entrepreneurial skills.
• 5 youth specialised in digital services. How? This group will provide digital services support to project participants and receive incentives in exchange.
• 40 women from the area of the blast who will participate in sewing and entrepreneurial skills trainings.
• 20 young people from the area of the blast who will participate in a training to obtain a ‘Brevet d’Aptitude aux Fonctions d’Animateur’ or childcare aptitude certificate. This will allow them to undertake psychosocial support activities for children in their community.

Duration project: June 2022 till September 2023

89.3 million forcibly displaced worldwide

• 69% originated from just 5 countries (including 2 countries where Dorcas is active; Syria and South Sudan)
• 83% hosted in low- and middle-income countries

(Source: Global Trends Report UNHCR end 2021)

Dorcas is active in 14 countries in Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa and the Middle East. We see the effect of the continuously growing numbers of people forced to flee. In 12 of those 14 countries we see forcibly displaced people. One of the recent examples is Ukraine.

UNHCR states that with millions of Ukrainians displaced and further displacement elsewhere in 2022, the total forced displacement now exceeds 100 million people. This means 1 in every 78 people on earth has been forced to flee – a dramatic milestone.

Lebanon experiences the effects of the ongoing conflict in Syria. Lebanon is hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with an estimation of 1.5 million Syrian refugees plus some 13,617 refugees of other nationalities.

In South Sudan, 2 million people are internally displaced due to conflict, insecurity and the impact of climate change. The crisis in South Sudan remains the largest refugee crisis in Africa.

In Syria around 6.7 million people are internally displaced, some of whom have been displaced multiple times.

• A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.
• Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled.
• Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country.

Source UNHCR and ReliefWeb

Dorcas invests in resilient communities in which everyone can make their contribution. When a disaster or a crisis occurs, we provide assistance and we support communities to rebuild themselves. At the same time, we invest in structural remedies for poverty and social exclusion. We do this by encouraging entrepreneurship, self-reliance, and protection of people in vulnerable circumstances.

If there was any year in recent history where the importance of resilience was underlined, it was 2021. On a global scale! The COVID-19 pandemic continued to take its toll and surprised us time and again with its twists and turns as well as its secondary effects on society. Existing societal cracks became deeper and wider, and new ones emerged, resulting in sharper divisions and growing imbalances. Its impact could be felt in many public sectors, communities, and our lives. The degree of severity varied and was dependent on a person’s social status and where they lived. It became abundantly clear across the world: self-esteem and resilience are essential for maintaining hope and perspective in difficult times. And they are also the core elements of our interventions.

How did we manage? Read our 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭.

2021 Saw Dorcas grow in partnering for change for realising change. Our collective efforts reached and impacted almost 930,000 persons in 14 countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The annual report is meant to be a transparent look in to the ‘kitchen’ of Dorcas. You will read how and with who Dorcas has contributed to sustaining change in extraordinary times in 2020. Reading the report will give you the opportunity to learn from our successes and failures. Reading the report will help you to look beyond the ‘numbers’ and discover how change has taken place in the lives of individual people, communities and the societies they live in.

Contact us

When you have read the annual report, contact Dorcas! Get in touch! Let us know what we can do better. How can we work together to make sure no one is left behind and lasting impact is created in extraordinary times, for all and by all?