Swiss Solidarity sees unprecented level of donations for Ukraine
In the two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Swiss Solidarity charity has financed 109 projects to the tune of CHF80 million ($90.8 million).
The projects have mostly focused on repair work on buildings and infrastructure, healthcare and individual aid for those affected in Ukraine. Swiss Solidarity has spoken of an “unprecedented wave of solidarity”.
Overall the charity has received CHF135 million in donations for aid to Ukraine, it said on Friday – the second-highest amount in the foundation’s history. “However, we depend on further support to ensure our aid in the long term,” said director Miren Bengoa.
In the first months of the war, aid was sent to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine such as Moldova, Poland and Romania, where 36 projects were supported with CHF 6.8 million. The help was then later refocused on eastern Ukraine, which was directly affected by the fighting, and on areas to which many people had fled.
More
Swiss Solidarity celebrates 75 years of helping people in need
According to Swiss Solidarity, almost 90% of donations were used directly in Ukraine and focused on people with specific needs, including children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, single parents with several children, older people and people with disabilities. Other projects have focused on trauma management, child protection and demining.
In its work, Swiss Solidarity relies on other Swiss organisations and their local partners. “The indiscriminate attacks and the ongoing bombings” are a major risk for these groups, writes the charity.
Organisations supported by Swiss Solidarity in Ukraine include Médecins Sans Frontières, Caritas Switzerland, Fondation Suisse de Déminage, Fondation Digger, Fondation Terre des hommes, HEKS, Helvetas, ICRC, Medair, Médecins du Monde, Save the Children, the Swiss Red Cross, Solidar Suisse and the Hirondelle Foundation.
Translated from German by DeepL/dos
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.