Last year alone, ICRC teams distributed food and hygiene items to more than 214,000 people, while another 72,000 people received tarpaulins and plastic sheets to repair holes and protect their homes. They also supported local entities to repair the water supply network, benefiting 1.5 million people, and supply emergency water to more than 41,000 people in Donetsk, Mariupol and eight other locations.
In towns like Volnovakha, the ICRC repaired heating systems, roofs, windows and doors in dozens of destroyed houses. In Donetsk, it distributed emergency construction materials to 5,500 families for temporary repair of their homes. In Donetsk and Lugansk, the ICRC delivered 18,400 tonnes of coal to families living on the front lines to help keep them warm.
“I heard an explosion, and in the blink of an eye, everything collapsed on me. I looked up… The ceiling was on top of me! I started to climb out from under the rubble through a maze that formed the collapsed ceiling and broken furniture, with huge nails sticking out of the planks. The explosion was so powerful that the door to the room was torn in two,” said Nadezhda, a Volnovakha resident. The ICRC provided him with building materials to repair her house.