Czech NGOs have supported 3.6 million Ukrainians since 2022, raising nearly CZK 7 billion in aid
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Czech humanitarian organizations have supported at least 3.6 million Ukrainians with aid worth over CZK 6.9 billion. The estimate includes donations from Czech donors and international institutions.
Humanitarian organisations in Ukraine are involved in everything from restoring water and heating networks, repairing tens of thousands of houses, and even building school shelters. They run clinics near the front lines and distribute water, fuel, and money; they help refugees in transit centers, support thousands of Ukrainian children to continue their education in Czech schools, and much more.
Last year, resources raised for Czech NGOs helped repair 12,391 houses damaged by shelling and reconstruct water networks for more than 868,000 people. For the estimated 50,000 Ukrainian children in Czechia, according to data from the Ministry of Education, the organisations organise Czech language courses, lend them teaching aids and equipment, and support school psychologists and teaching assistants.
Doctors Without Borders has been active in Ukraine since 1999 and is now active in 13 locations, spokesperson Tomáš Bendl said. The organization takes care of transporting patients from eastern to western Ukraine, and last year had more than 1,400 transports with its ambulances. Recent news of peace talks, however, were not particularly welcome because they didn’t include Ukraine, Bendl noted:
“Of course, we hope that the situation in Ukraine improves. But we also realize that it must improve under conditions that guarantee long-term peace and don’t worsen the circumstances. So, while we hope the situation gets better, we should stress that it should be done with the Ukrainians themselves.”
People in Need, one of Czechia’s foremost NGOs, works with local organizations and Ukrainian civil society and institutions that document war crimes and crimes against humanity. The organization works across forty countries, but according to Director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy Nadia Ivanova, the aspect of the conflict that is unique is its scale:
“Of course, the war is something different from what we have seen in the last fifty or eighty years, but from a humanitarian point of view, it’s not completely new, apart from its scale. It’s not the first time Russia has committed acts like this; they’ve committed crimes against humanity in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. But it’s one of the first wars where we can see all of it, basically.”
During the press conference in Prague, the organizations said that with the start of the war, hundreds of small organizations were established in Czechia to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies to the frontline.
Hundreds of other initiatives have been created to support Ukrainian refugees in Czechia, focusing primarily on the elderly, the sick, single parents, children, and youth.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. In the first half of this February, more than 396,700 refugees had temporary protection in the country, according to the ministry. Of these, 96,700 were children and 17,600 were people over 65. There were 171,000 women and 111,400 men of working age.
