Sir, – Concern Worldwide welcomes the truly generous response of the Irish public to the needs of people deeply affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
This support is enabling Concern’s emergency response team to focus activities inside Ukraine where the humanitarian needs are greatest.
Working in collaboration with our European NGO partners in Alliance2015 – ACTED and People in Need – families affected by this conflict are being reached with cash payments targeting 15,000 displaced people living with host families or in rented accommodation; family household kits, including blankets, bed linen, cooking pots; hygiene kits, including washing powder, refuse bags, toilet paper, buckets and hand sanitiser; baby kits, including soap, baby moisture cream, baby powder, nappies and baby wipes; support to collective centres in western Ukraine for displaced people, with hot meals, mattresses and blankets, information on people’s rights, assistance with utility payments; and psychosocial support, and establishing child-friendly spaces.
The humanitarian community has stepped up to respond to this crisis, but the system is under great strain and access to all affected population is simply not possible.
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We must ensure humanitarian assistance is provided for, and accessible to, people inside and outside Ukraine without discrimination, and urgently recognise and respond to the protection threats facing women and children.
It is crucial to remember that there is no humanitarian solution to conflict – only a political one.
A few weeks of war does decades of damage, resulting in lifetimes of loss and grief. We must do better as an international community to prevent conflict from occurring in the first place, and to bring it to a swift end when it breaks out.
We welcome the attention of the Houses of the Oireachtas on this crisis and urge Ireland, together with its fellow members of the European Union and United Nations, to continue to press for a cessation of hostilities and for all parties to the conflict to respect and comply with international humanitarian law.
The Ukraine crisis is now becoming a global crisis of food security. At a time of great uncertainty and economic pressure, which is leading to increased costs of food and energy, humanitarian needs are growing across the world.
It is essential that all international donors increase funding to meet the needs of people affected in all situations of crisis, so that no person is left wanting, and redoubling their efforts to prevent the multiplying and deepening crises that lead to such need. – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC
MacSORLEY,
Chief Executive,
Concern Worldwide,
Dublin 2.