Dunaivtsi, Ukraine: A Home Away from Harm

In 2023, the City of Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, was selected as a grantee of the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF), the MMC’s instrument to channel international funding directly to cities to implement inclusive projects of their own design. 

With support from the GCF, Dunaivtsi repurposed an abandoned hospital to create a family center that is providing dignified housing to 30 internally displaced families with children. In addition to fulfilling essential shelter needs, the center provides internally displaced children and their caregivers psychological counseling and access to social services to support their well-being, inclusion, and healthy development.

Over five million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. While Dunaivtsi has not been on the front lines of the conflict, the city of 15,000 residents has received over 10,000 internally displaced people (IDPs). The war has also impacted the city’s financial resources, with disruption of local businesses and the additional costs associated with the needs of returned army personnel. Despite these challenges, the Dunaivtsi City Council has made a concerted effort to welcome and provide for the needs of all IDPs in the city.

Accommodation of displaced families with children is a particularly pressing issue in Dunaivtsi and across the country. According to UNICEF, 2.5 million children are internally displaced in the country. Children have also been severely impacted by the conflict, with many losing parents, suffering from post-traumatic distress and having their education disrupted. In Dunaivtsi, over 500 displaced children are still in need of safe and dignified housing.

The City of Dunaivtsi repurposed an abandoned hospital to create a family center to provide dignified housing and social services to thirty internally displaced families with children. 

In addition to fulfilling an essential shelter need, the family center provided internally displaced children and their caregivers psychological counseling and access to social services to support their well-being, inclusion, and healthy development. 

The center’s wrap-around offerings include individual and family meetings with psychologists, educational and touristic excursions, visits to after-school and sport programs, a public playground for children, and documentation services from the Mobile Administrative Services Center.

These activities specifically aimed to promote community inclusion and help internally displaced families and children learn more about the region. Dunaivtsi also furnished the family center with age-responsive indoor and outdoor spaces for families to safely play and rest. 

Dunaivtsi’s GCF project was designed and developed in collaboration with IDPs already living in the facility, who will advised on the construction work and the inclusion activities. The city also offered residents paid work once renovations commenced. 

After the war, the city plans to turn the space into a children’s camp or rehabilitation center for domestic and gender-based violence survivors.

Through the GCF, Dunaivtsi fulfilled the immediate housing needs of families internally displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war while creating the conditions they need to feel at home in their new community.  

The project refurbished a previously underutilized public space to create dignified housing for 18 IDP families, including 17 children under the age of 15. In addition to shelter space, the family center has kitchens and playrooms.  

With support from the city, project clients have begun to rebuild their lives in Dunaivtsi. The project has helped every child living in the family center to enroll in and regularly attend enriching after-school activities. Ranging from fine arts to sports and digital development, these activities promote children’s healthy physical and mental development in their new environment. Dunaivtsi also provided psychological consultations and trainings to families to help them navigate the stresses and traumas of the ongoing war.  

Additionally, the project hired three IDPs as custodians in the family center, providing them stable employment and income. In partnership with UNHCR, the city also opened a greenhouse near the family center and delivered horticulture trainings to project clients. The greenhouse is not only improving local access to nourishing food, but it is also providing a fulfilling leisure opportunity for center residents.   

Finally, Dunaivtsi’s project helped orient IDP families to the greater Dunaivtsi area, a key step in fostering belonging and welcome. The city has taken clients on organized visits to local cultural and educational sites so they can learn more about their new home city and build community with local residents.