Ukraine: Restoring public services through renovations
New windows and beds to refurbish hospitals
In the lead-up to the winter of 2023-2024, the UN Migration Agency, IOM, completed a renovation of the Mykolaiv Regional Centre for Mental Health. The project included changing 80 windows and 20 interior doors, repairing bathrooms and patient rooms, as well as replacing electrical wiring. In addition, the wards were equipped with functional beds, anti-bedsore mattresses, and infusion stands.
"People turn to us for psychological and psychiatric support. The environment they are in is very important in order for them to get better."
Liudmyla, Medical Director of Mykolaiv Regional Centre for Mental Health
As part of further winterization efforts, IOM carried our similar repairs at the Odesa Regional Public Health Centre. In response to a request from the hospital administration, IOM provided 20 functional beds with anti-bedsore mattresses, four patient monitors, four oxygen concentrators, two enteral feeding pumps and a medical aspirator to the hospital.
“At the beginning of the invasion we had to accommodate displaced patients from a facility in the Kherson region. Consequently, we reopened a previously unused department, requiring major renovations, especially before winter, as our patients recall last winter as damp and cold.”
Oksana, Director General of Odesa Regional Public Health Centre
Schools preparing for winter
To protect school children amid air raids and potential power outages, UNICEF helps equip school bomb shelters and provide them with generators.
The school bomb shelter in this village in the Odesa-region is simple – a basic two-room basement. But students are safe and warm here, with everything they might need during an air raid. Over 200 students currently attend the school, with another 53 children attending a neighbouring kindergarten.
The students are used to endless power and heating outages caused by the ongoing war. Now, thanks to a grant of 3,000 USD, the school has purchased a generator and electric blankets. The generator allows the school to run both the boiler and the cold room, where food for the school canteen is stored.
"When it is cold, we use the blankets that are in the shelter. It's also great that there is a backup light – we don't have to sit in the dark.”
Student
UNICEF has also provided the school with power banks, meaning that, even during blackouts, students are able to charge their phones and call their parents.
The results stories on the webpage of the Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine are based on texts produced and shared by the partners of the programme. The stories represent a snapshot of the results achieved to showcase the difference the Norwegian support is making. You can access the original stories from IOM here and here, and from UNICEF here.