Dopomoga Dnipra is a coordination centre that was established by activists from Euromaidan in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, in June 2014. It was among the first centres in Ukraine to host Internally Displace People (IDPs) who fled to Dnipropetrovsk from Crimea and Donetsk. During one year of establishment the centre registered more than 26,200 IDPs and provided help to 100,000 vulnerable people from Donbass and Crimea.
A centre for children's psychological and social rehabilitation. Image credit: Dopomoga DnipraThe centre works as a one-stop-shop. Under its roof there are social services representatives, doctors, psychologists, legal advice specialists. All the services are free of charge for IDPs. The organisation works as a transit point that hosts people escaping conflict areas for a couple of days whilst helping the displaced people find accommodation.
After the flow of IDPs decreased, the centre started focusing on social and psychological activities with efforts to try and help people to adapt and integrate into the local community. There are a number of activities carried out to help achieve this; creativity sessions, sports, dancing and languages classes.
Activities
- Volunteers constantly monitor the situation of IDPs and cooperate with state services to advocate for the rights of IDPs. They also work to help vulnerable and displaced people.
- Works to meet the needs of the IDPs by communicating with state services and also through initiating coordinating meetings with local authorities, local NGOs, community groups etc.
- To help achieve peaceful co-existence and integration, free classes, such as art classes, are available to both the IDPs and the local community.
- Educational programs ( English and Ukrainian classes).
- In cooperation with cultural centres, they provide free tickets for concerts, performances and other events.
- They organise festivals for children, photo and art exhibitions.
- Head of the Charitable foundation Vlad Makarov was appointed as advisor of the oblast Governor on IDPs issues.
