Building long-term relations

The sky above Dnipro is clear on a Friday morning. Spring is awakening and bright sunbeams melt away the last pieces of ice on the city’s riverbanks.

At the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine’s (SMM) offices, Darlene from the United States, her colleague Farahnoz from Tajikistan and Sasha, the team’s local language assistant, are preparing for a patrol.

Darlene, one of the SMM’s longest serving Monitoring Officers, briefs her colleagues. Today, she, Farahnoz and Sasha will visit a centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Kamianske, north-west of Dnipro. “We’ll conduct a regular patrol to the IDP centre and talk to the residents about their socio-economic situation,” Darlene says.

Amongst the key tasks of the SMM’s Team in Dnipro is monitoring the impact of the conflict on civilians, including the situation of IDPs. Back in 2014, hundreds of thousands of people fled the conflict-affected areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, leaving behind their homes to seek refuge in new and often distant parts of the country. According to official reports, there are about 1.5 million IDPs scattered across the country. Most of them are women, and many are still living in collective centers around Dnipro.

The patrol is making its way through the morning traffic, driving down the city’s broad boulevards. While they are in the car, Sasha provides some information about the number of IDPs in the area. “There are six collective centers in three regions,” he says. “Some 73,000 registered IDPs live in the Dnipro region, 56,000 in Zaporizhia and over 6,000 in Kropyvnytskyi.” The scale of the problem in the area resonates with his colleagues.

After an hour’s drive, Darlene, Farahnoz and Sasha reach Kamianske. The city, whose name roughly translates to ‘the stony place’, is home to the metallurgy and chemical industry. The IDPs centre is situated amidst soviet-style housing blocks. Between the modular living containers, laundry and some soft toys hang from washing lines that gently wave in the wind.

Upon arrival, Olha, the centre’s administrator, meets the SMM team at the entrance. One can tell from the hearty welcome received that Darlene, Farahnoz and Sasha are no strangers to her. However, building such a good rapport was not easy at first.

“It took a while before people spoke to us,” Darlene recalls. “When talking with IDPs, you need to be able to relate to them. The road is long with many a winding turn, until people start to open up.”

Through regular patrols and in-person meetings, the Dnipro team have patiently managed to build relations with the residents of the centre. “We would sit down and listen to the stories these people had to tell, where they come from, why they had to leave their homes and how life has been for them ever since,” Sasha says.

After a short walk around the compound, the team sits down to hear from Olha about the situation in the centre since their last visit. Some 211 IDPs from Donetsk and Luhansk region (84 women, 76 men and 51 minors) are currently living in the centre. Amongst them are single mothers and pensioners.

Many of them were already among the most vulnerable before the conflict began. “As scary as it may sound, the IDPs have settled down here. People have gotten used to this place and the circumstances,” Olha says.

“One needs to keep in mind that these structures were not foreseen to be permanent, but many IDPs have been living in the centre for six or seven years,” Sasha adds.

Lasting and durable solutions to housing is the most critical issue, but it is not the only problem IDPs encounter. Relationships with the host communities are also fundamental to their integration. Oftentimes, they struggle to find jobs, because many employers think that an IDP might leave after a short time. Similar problems occur concerning the availability of vacancies in local kindergartens for their children.

While all of these things pose formidable challenges, the biggest one, Darlene believes, is emotional. “Many of the IDPs have suffered trauma, but are not willing to seek help, especially the men. A man seeking help from a psychologist may be quite stigmatized by society here.”

The team slowly wraps up the conversation and says goodbye to Olha and some other residents of the centre.

On the way back to Dnipro, they reflect on what drives them to continue working on this difficult topic. “I believe that everyone could become an IDP at some point in his or her life, so my approach is to do my best to be of help by listening to and reporting on their needs,” Darlene says. From the passenger’s seat, Sasha adds with conviction, “What these people really need is to have equal access to their basic rights and to have stability, so that they can plan and build their future.”