The Norwegian Council for Refugees works in the Mykolayiv region: how can it be useful to the residents of the region

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Ukraine since 2014. However, since the beginning of the Great War, the organization has significantly expanded its activities and opened offices in six more cities, in particular Mykolaiv. Currently, the NRC representative office in Ukraine provides support to forcibly displaced people and people affected by the war: food, housing, water, improvement of sanitary conditions, financial and legal assistance.

NikVesti tells how the Norwegian Refugee Council helps Mykolaiv and the region, as well as how the organization can be useful to Ukrainians.

SIX LINES OF NRC WORK

The NRC emergency response team started helping residents of hard-to-reach front-line areas in the Mykolaiv region since the beginning of the invasion, and the organization is only starting to help Mykolaiv now.

Currently, the Norwegian Refugee Council has six main areas of work:

• information support, counseling and legal assistance (ICLA). In addition to providing legal advice, experts also conduct trainings and legal examinations of households selected for the implementation of shelter projects;
• shelter, water supply and hygiene (Shelter-WASH). This includes light and medium repairs of houses damaged by hostilities, repair of bomb shelters, assistance in preparing for winter to the war-affected population in underprivileged settlements, provision of financial assistance for renting housing, school repairs, distribution of emergency response kits for housing damage and non-food products (NFI);
• protection against violence (PFV). Experts carry out monitoring measures of social protection of the population, take care of individual cases of assistance, and also provide technical support to the Foundation of the Deaf in the Mykolaiv region;
• support and accommodation of displaced persons (UDOC). The organization provides support to the IDP Transit Center, reference services for displaced persons and coordinates IDP accommodation centers;
• education (Education). NRC helps with the restoration of schools and provides psychosocial support to teachers and students;
• food and livelihood security (LFS). The organization provides vouchers for building materials to repair premises for keeping domestic livestock to mitigate cold weather conditions, as well as vouchers for agricultural materials (tools and seeds for spring sowing).

RESTORATION OF 35 BOMB SHELTERS IN MYKOLAEV AND 400 HOUSES IN THE REGION

In March 2023, the Norwegian Refugee Council signed a memorandum with the Mykolaiv City Council regarding the restoration of 35 bomb shelters in the city. It is about improving conditions in the shelters of residential buildings, NikVesti clarified in the NRC.

«These are bomb shelters in ordinary residential buildings. But these are not simple shelters, but full-fledged bomb shelters according to the list of the State Emergency Service. They are in ordinary houses that people have access to,» they said.

Currently, all 35 bomb shelters have been restored. Emergency lighting was installed there, bathrooms were repaired, and 800 sets were provided for the appropriate arrangement of bomb shelters (folding mats, bed linen, pillows, batteries, emergency lights).

In 2024, the organization plans to increase the number of bomb shelters for restoration, currently the number and list of works are being discussed there.

At the same time, NRC is currently restoring 200 buildings in the Mykolaiv region that were damaged during the war and require light and medium repairs. It is planned to do this by the end of 2023. The organization does not engage in capital restoration of buildings, NikVesti clarified there.

For this, the Norwegian Refugee Council is conducting an expert assessment of the damage to the housing and its legal examination according to the information provided by the shelter cluster, they said: «We do not choose people ourselves. We work closely with the housing reconstruction cluster, and they work closely with local authorities. People submit their applications for damaged housing and already then the cluster itself compiles a list of such addresses. Further, various organizations, and we in particular, go and conduct an assessment on our own.»

Since housing restoration is one of the most popular requests among residents of the Mykolayiv region, next year the organization plans to repair another 200 houses. The Council is now also considering the possibility of their restoration on the territory of Mykolaiv.

«We have two options: either vouchers for construction materials if people can do the work themselves, or our contractors who will come and do all the work in full,» the NRC added.

FREE LEGAL ASSISTANCE FOR IMMIGRANTS

This year, the Center for legal support for IDPs and residents of war-affected communities began operating in Mykolaiv. There, resettled people can get free legal assistance for:

• submitting an application for compensation for damaged or destroyed housing;
• receiving aid for victims of the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP;
• receiving an inheritance;
• entering information into the State Register of Real Property Rights.

NRC lawyers provide consultations every Tuesday from 09:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the premises of the Department of Housing and Communal Affairs of the Mykolaiv City Council (cabinet No. 230). NRC lawyers will provide consultations on the following issues:

«A vivid example is that many people cannot even apply for compensation because the real estate object is not in the State Register of Property Rights. For many people, unfortunately, this procedure is quite difficult, they do not know where to start. And here they can tell you how to do it correctly, where to start and where to turn so that it is done quickly and efficiently,» said Ihor Nabatov, deputy director of the housing and communal services department.

THE AMOUNT OF AID TO MYKOLAYIV REGION IS SIGNIFICANT

«It is difficult to say the exact amount of aid to the region, because how much has already been done, how many projects have been implemented,» says the Norwegian Refugee Council.

«We started our active activities in the Mykolaiv region last year. Since then, we are constantly present in the region with various projects. We helped both with building materials during shelling and by distributing water after the Kakhovka dam was blown up. That's why I don't even know what amount to operate, but it is significant,» they said there.

During the last meeting on November 13 with the city authorities, representatives of the Norwegian Refugee Council announced that on the eve of winter, two projects will be launched to support internally displaced persons, to which they intend to include Mykolaiv. The organization is going to cover the needs of 300 households in warm clothes and other things that are needed during the winter. At the same time, NRC plans to help families who cannot afford it with rent. It is assumed that the most vulnerable categories of the population will be given funds for six months in advance, so that they can focus on finding work and other needs, so as not to be dependent on humanitarian aid.

Currently, there are 409 displaced families in Mykolaiv who need resettlement, as their housing is currently damaged and it is impossible to live there, Deputy Mayor Anatolii Petrov clarified at the time.

«These are people who rent housing, whose private houses have either been broken into, or entire entrances have been destroyed. They could be included in this support program and transfer these funds to rent housing. This would be concrete help,» said Anatolii Petrov.

Representatives of the Norwegian Refugee Council said that this help is quite possible, and therefore asked to provide them with lists of people.

Yuliia Boichenko, NikVesti