The ICF “Alliance for Public Health” is a pioneer in Ukraine in successfully implementing the SCLR approach. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that initiative groups of communities affected by the war are active by participating in the mini-grant competition and, with the funds received, solve urgent problems of specific people or the community as a whole, starting from digging wells to repairing and equipping shelters, medical points, creation of invincibility points, restoration of water and electricity supply. Community residents and IDPs rally to solve humanitarian needs and support vital initiatives thanks to such activities.
In the period from May 2022 to December 2023, the Alliance, within the framework of various humanitarian projects, together with its partners – regional NGOs, supported 695 public initiatives in 22 regions of the country, providing mini-grants for a total amount of more than 2 million GBP. As a result of the implementation of mini-projects, these public initiatives reached more than 436,000 affected people with various assistance. With the financial support of the Church of Sweden, within the framework of the project “Supporting community initiatives in Ukraine”, it was possible to support 159 public initiatives in 16 regions of Ukraine for over 499 pounds. Thanks to the work done, more than 131,000 Ukrainians received help.
520 children aged 3 to 17, including children with special educational needs, could spend their free time interestingly and usefully in the inclusive “Childhood Island” space in Shevchenkiv, Kharkivska Oblast. This space was created for children who lived in the occupation and did not have the opportunity to thoroughly study and communicate, as well as children who have mental disorders. Through joint efforts, it was possible to equip the room with sensory equipment to help young visitors relax and strengthen their psychological health. Also, the room is furnished with desks, laptops, a projector, bean bag chairs, easels, a karaoke microphone, a set of board games, and specialized equipment for psycho-emotional relief.
Since the primary goal of the SCLR approach is to support communities to improve their well-being in war conditions and develop their capacity to help the community and people in need further, it is the representatives of the initiative groups who actualize the needs of their community and offer their ideas for the implementation of the mini-grant. The Alliance engaged regional facilitators to help community representatives implement their projects. Facilitators became mentors to the initiative groups to unite them, prioritize their community’s problems and needs, help prepare the competitive application for receiving a mini-grant, and accompany the projects at all stages of their implementation.
The International Charitable Foundation “Center for Social Projects of the Future” from Kramatorsk, Donetska Oblast already has experience in successfully implementing mini-grants. The organization helps medical institutions in the region where, due to active hostilities, there are significant problems with the provision of medical care. To continue the work and provide high-quality essential medical services, it was necessary to purchase a new analyzer urgently. It helps to determine the levels of various biochemical indicators in the blood and is, therefore, very important for accurate diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients in medical laboratories. It also helps doctors make informed decisions about patient care. This is a significant initiative, the result of which was providing high-quality medical services to more than 200,000 residents of Kramatorsk and the Kramatorsk district, which now includes Lyman and Sviatohirsk.
Implementing community initiatives with the help of mini-grants increased trust and interaction with people who asked for help. This helped provide affected communities additional resources to develop and address their immediate needs.
“We help implement “bright” ideas aimed at quickly overcoming the consequences of the war. They come from communities that better navigate the situation on the ground and see the most effective ways to overcome challenges. Thus, mini-grants enable initiative groups to meet urgent needs quickly and are a reliable tool for solving urgent problems,” said Maryna Varban, Senior Manager of the humanitarian support program, ICF ” Alliance for Public Health”.
ICF “Alliance for Public Health”, with the financial support of the Church of Sweden and technical assistance of the charity organization Christian Aid (Great Britain), implements the approach “Supporting community initiatives” (SCLR – Survivor and community-led crisis response) in Ukraine. The mechanism for implementing the approach is to provide initiative groups with mini-grants worth up to 5,000 US dollars to implement mini-projects of assistance to local communities.
Inspired by the successful experience of implementing public initiatives with the help of mini-grants, one of the national Swedish TV channels visited Ukraine and filmed a story about people’s lives in the realities of war to raise funds for the support of the Ukrainian people. You can view the story via the link: https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/901880758/rendition/1080p/file.mp4?loc=external&log_user=0&signature=6269ec43c5bf9a295ecc5948d0d1d17c48fc9df4129acf7116fb451490aa17de
The SCLR (Survivor community-led response) approach was developed and implemented by the Local to Global Protection (L2GP) initiative. This is an international initiative of workers of humanitarian organizations and activists with diverse experience in humanitarian response. The primary objective of this initiative is to document and support local responses to protection, survival, and recovery during major humanitarian crises. More details at: https://aph.org.ua/uk/resursy/sclr_ua/
For additional information on the implementation of the “Support of community initiatives” approach, instructions for preparing applications, and samples of accompanying documents, contact the coordinator of the community of practitioners Yanyshyn Josef: yanyshyn@aph.org.ua
You can join the community of practitioners by filling out the form via the link: https://forms.gle/anbEbgQKrWdoqEMN6