New humanitarian office opened in Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine

We are opening a new office in Kharkiv to strengthen our humanitarian response for communities living in war-affected areas of eastern Ukraine, including those close to the frontline. Kharkiv is one of the most important hubs for displaced people in northern and eastern Ukraine, with registered internally displaced people now accounting for more than one-sixth of the city’s population.

Bence Dékány, Director of International Programmes at Hungarian Interchurch Aid, recently returned from Ukraine, where he assessed the needs of communities in the region and met with local partner organisations as well as representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO). This autumn, we will launch a programme supporting the most vulnerable groups and the local civil society organisations providing assistance to them.

Bringing assistance closer to those who need it

The opening of our Kharkiv office will bring us closer to people in need and enable us to continuously monitor changing local needs. This will be particularly important as winter approaches. Drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure are already causing daily power outages, and as we prepare for what is expected to be a harsh winter, we are also assessing how we can help communities cope with the resulting challenges.

Hungarian Interchurch Aid has been present in Ukraine since 1998. Since the escalation of the war in 2022, we have been implementing the largest humanitarian assistance programme in our organisation’s history. Over the past four and a half years, our assistance, worth more than USD 50 million, has reached nearly one million people affected by the war and resulting humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and Hungary.