"IOM Supports Women Displaced in Ukraine"

* Вміст доступний лише англійською мовою
 

Only weeks after she had to flee from Crimea, Niyara* gave birth to her ninth child. The boy was born in the Western-Ukraine city of Vinnytsia in late July, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Uraza-Bayram (Eid al-Fitr). Meeting her in front of her room at the maternity hospital, she suggest: “Let’s stay here in case the baby wakes up”. The young woman seemed to be quite satisfied with the hospital, the nurses, the city of Vinnytsia and the steamy weather those days. An economist and child psychologist by education, Niyara, her husband and her other eight children are some of the 200.000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Eastern Ukraine and Crimea who had to look for refuge within other parts of Ukraine.

With the support of Norway and Switzerland, so far, IOM was able to provide non-food items, medicine and psycho-social support for approximately 1.000 of the most vulnerable amongst the displaced Ukrainians. IOM coordinates its targeted interventions closely with all UN partners and the government, both on the central and local levels, and provides direct assistance through its partner NGOs to help people like Niyara and her family (in their case IOM’s assistance included a baby carriage, school utensils and a microwave).

A Crimean Tatar, Niyara was born in Uzbekistan exile and she and her parents could only move back to their Crimean homeland in 2001. Contrary to her, her parents refused to leave Crimea again, as they felt they had to protect their property. Niyara says that childbirth has provided the most vivid moments in her life. Back home, she and her husband Mustafa always dreamt about their own big house and almost managed to finish the works on it. “I’ve always been fond of people, liked to have guests, cooked for them and was never tired,” recalls Niyara. However, life was turned upside down when Niyara and her husband had to leave Crimea after the outbreak of the crisis. To make things worse, last year her husband was diagnosed with a rare disease which requires expensive care and treatment. As a result of the stress and the fear when the situation in Crimea became more and more unbearable for them, his health condition started to rapidly deteriorate.

Niyara’s five elder children were able to enroll in school in Vinnytsia and teachers and new classmates helped them to adapt. But the boys and girls do miss Crimea and summertime with their grandparents.

“I was expecting to face many challenges, but people’s attitudes in Vinnytsia were a pleasant surprise,” says Niyara. “Passers-by stopped to tell us something nice, a market vendor gave us potatoes and raspberries for free…”

Despite Niyara’s optimism, the community’s capacity to help IDPs has been stretched. The Protestant church that provided shelter for Niyara’s family and other IDPs needs the premises back for its own purpose in September. More and more IDPs from Eastern Ukraine are arriving in Vinnytsia as in other parts of Ukraine, all of them in desperate need of accommodation, food, medicine, winter-cloth and other assistance. Niyara and other IDPs staying in Vinnytsia agree that finding a suitable place to stay is their most pressing need. The issue of employment is also far from being solved. As displaced persons’ basic needs are not yet fully covered, the ability to integrate so far remains vague.

Talking to another group of IDPs from Crimea, they beam when we ask them about Niyara: “She is an example for all of us, as she never complains and is never depressed,” says Aishe, one of the women staying with their husbands and children in the remote village an hour drive outside of Vinnytsia. Since the end of May, they are living in a former technical school, with old gauze beds and one lavatory for almost 100 women and children. IOM supported them with refrigerators, microwaves, washing and sewing machines, ovens and other well-needed items.

For another displaced Crimean Tatar woman, Elmira, whom IOM has provided with a sewing machine, the first orders came from her own community, as she creates traditional Muslim head-covering which is difficult to buy in mainland Ukraine. Elmira’s main concern is her son’s health: the six-year-old boy has autism and needs special schooling.

Many children are amongst the IDPs and Niyara’s youngest is not the only newcomer: “Six babies were born in Vinnytsia from our community’s women,” counts Aishe proudly, “six little Ukrainians.”

*All names have been changed to protect privacy