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European Baptist Federation FINAL PROJECT REPORT

Contact Details: Bandura Igor (English speaking) - Email: pastorbandura@gmail.com Phone: +380674872187

Project Title: Emergency Response among Those Affected by the Conflict in Ukraine Implementing Partner: All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists (AUC ECB), also referred to in this report at the Baptist Union (BU) Project Budget: € 167,160

Dates When the Project was Implemented: December 2015 – February 2016 1. Provide an update on the humanitarian situation in the country. How is this

affecting the implementation of the project?

Overall situation in the country is still getting worse, because the undeclared war continues. Businesses in the area are closing because of uncertainty. The prices for food and hygiene items along with the meagre income of many, have put many people on the edge of survival. The project was initially designed to assist people in the occupied eastern provinces. Due to challenges (described below), the project as designed could not be implemented and had to be redesigned to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled from the eastern provinces and resettled along the border areas.

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2. Describe the original design of the project. Original design was to provide complementary emergency rations every other month for six months (three distributions), hygiene items twice during the six-month period (two distributions), and coal for non-gasified houses to support families and vulnerable individuals in the conflict affected areas. In addition, it will address temporary shelter issues by providing rent for large families and rent for accommodation facilities for IDPs. 3. Describe the changes that were made to the project and the reasons why the

changes were made. The project was initially designed to provide assistance in the rebel occupied eastern provinces through the local Baptist churches there. It was to be done in conjunction with another project they were implementing funded by Diakonia Katastrophe from Germany. While the initial discussions and coordination with UN, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Orthodox Church were positive, there were challenges to get approval from the various rebel groups in the eastern provinces. The UN had agreed to transport the supplies across the frontier, but none of the humanitarian agencies (including the UN) were approved by the rebel groups to receive the supplies and conduct humanitarian operations. While the first funding was received in June 2015, and others followed in the months after that, the negotiations delayed the starting of the project. Neither the EBF and Diakonia funded projects were able to be implemented as planned. Since supplies could not be transported across the frontier, the possibility of procuring supplies in the eastern provinces itself was explored. However, this did not seem a viable option as either all the needed commodities were not available or those that were available were too expensive. In discussion with the leadership of the Baptist Union and leadership of local churches in the region, the project was redesigned to provide similar humanitarian assistance to IDPs who were now residing in the border regions in the Government controlled areas in Lugansk and Donetsk provinces. It is important to note that the humanitarian needs of the IDPs in the government controlled areas are just as significant as those living in the rebel controlled eastern provinces. The added challenge is that there are few humanitarian agencies providing assistance to the IDPs. Because of the delay and the critical need for food and heating among the IDPs, the project duration was also shortened from six months to three months with distributions being done twice during that period, rather than every other month. The redesigned project was then implemented in December 2015, with the first delivery of food being made just before Christmas. The contents of the food aid packages were adjusted to needs of the IDPs in the government controlled areas.

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Adult Food Pack

Commodity Quantity Sugar 5kgs Flour 10 kgs Buckwheat 2 x 0.9 kg Millet grouts 0.9 kg Powdered milk 2 x 250 grs Spices “vegetable” 2 x 70 grs Spices “khmeli-suneli 2x 25 grs. Tea 90 grs Liver paste 4 x 240 grs Chicken stew 0.5 kg Tomato paste 2 x 70 grs

Adult Hygiene Pack

Commodity Quantity Dishes washing detergent 2x 1 ltr Laundry soap 2 pieces Toilet soap 4 pieces Shower gel 1 x0.5 ltr Washing powder 2 x 600 gr Shampoo 1 ltr Toothpaste 1 tube Toothbrush 2 pieces Hand cream 1 tube Toilet paper 3 rolls Sewage cleaner 1 x 500 gr Plastic garbage bags (35L) 50 pieces Hygiene cotton swabs 1 x 200 pieces Hygienic cotton pads 1 x 120 pieces

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Children’s Food Pack

Children’s Hygiene Pack

Since in some areas in the government controlled areas coal was much more expensive then wood due to logistics and location, firewood was bought instead of coal. 4. Describe how you implemented the project. The project was implemented the way it was originally planned working through local churches, other than the fact that the locations were changed from the rebel controlled eastern provinces, to the government controlled areas along the border. The procurement was done centrally by the Baptist Union based on multiple quotations. The supplies were

Commodity Quantity Semolina 2 x0.8 kg Oat Flakes 800 grs Buckwheat cereal 400 grs Condensed Milk 2 x 370 grs Fruit Purees 3 x 190 grs Mashed meat 2 x 100 grs Children’s cookies 2 x 200 grs Vegetable puree 1 x 80 grs Cereal milk 250 grs Rice porridge 230 grs Carrot puree 2 x 125 grs Pumpkin puree 2 x 125 grs Children’s juice 2 x 200 grs

Commodity Quantity Baby soap 4 pieces Children’s shower gel 300 ml Baby Shampoo 300 ml Children’s cream 75 ml Toothpaste for children 2 x 85 ml Toothbrush for children 2 pieces Napkins (wet) 72 pcs pack x 4 Napkins (dry) 10 pcs pack x 8 Washing powder 4 x 400 grs Children’s oil 200 ml Disposable diapers 5 pcs pack x 1

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then packed and then transported to the churches in the distribution point. The churches identified families and other vulnerable people in need and registered them. Most then came to the church to collect their supplies. In some cases, church members transported the supplies to the homes of those registered.

a. Provide any data that you collected from the surveys that you conducted. Due to the redesign of the project and 1) the shorter implementation period (reducing it from 6 to 3 months) and 2) the need to help the churches understand why they needed to register the beneficiaries and collect data for a baseline survey, only one (1) survey could be done. A second proposal is being submitted to continue this project. Additional surveys will be done to determine the impact of the interventions. The results of the baseline survey are as follows: Beneficiaries

% of all beneficiaries Adult males 32 Adult females 61 Unidentified 7 Male children over 18 years 42 Female children over 18 years 32 Male children below 18 years 54 Female children below 18 years 36

First Distribution – Donetsk – 556 families Lugansk – 736 families Second Distribution – Donetsk – 76 families Lugansk – 254 families Total – Donetsk – 632 families Lugansk – 812 families Food Availability and Adequacy for Individual Families • 68% of the families regularly share what food they have with other families.

Implications: 1) The indirect beneficiaries from any food distribution is much higher than normal. 2) This also indicates that significant number of families do not have adequate food and that they depend on others to share what they have. 3) What is provided to families in need, a high percentage of them will share the food with others in need even if they don’t have enough.

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• 76% of the families said that they are eating less as IDPs than they normally

would. This figure is from when the registration for the first distribution was being done at the beginning of the project

• About 10% of the families send their children to work because the family does

not have enough to meet their basic needs.

• Little over half of the families reported eating three meals a day. About 40% do not eat three meals a day

o Breakfast 58% o Lunch 60% o Dinner 52%

Dietary Diversity These figures are from the beginning of the project.

Commodity % of Beneficiaries

Consuming % of Beneficiaries NOT

Consuming Grain 100 0 Potatoes 76 34 Vegetables 70 30 Fruits 8 92 Meat 28 72 Eggs 12 88 Fish 6 94 Beans 34 66 Dairy 46 54 Oil 68 32 Sweets 68 32 Coffee and tea 64 36

Implications

• The diets are heavy on grain and starch. • The majority had access to vegetable. However, it is important to note that

the survey was done at the beginning of the project in December and January when they would still have had vegetables from the summer and Fall. As winter progressed, they would have had little or no access to vegetables.

• Very few ate any fruit. • Significant numbers consume little protein on any regular basis. Even the

consumption of vegetable proteins such as beans is quite low.

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• Half do not consume any dairy.

If this were to continue long term, there would be a significant impact on vulnerable groups such as growing children, pregnant and lactating mothers, and the elderly because of micro-nutrient deficiencies due to the lack of fruits and vegetables, and very low consumption of protein.

b. What were the results of implementing this project – what changes did you

see; how did it practically benefit the people?

Beneficiaries were appreciating the aid a lot, many people were getting this help with gratitude. For many this aid helped to see that others do care for them. c. How were the local churches involved?

• Churches identified the beneficiaries from among the IDPs in need in their area. Since most of the settlements are small it was not a difficult task.

• When the shipment of supplies arrived at the local church, church members

assisted in unloading it for free with the joy that it can benefit people in their area.

• Other volunteers from the church registered people who were to receive the

aid and filled out the beneficiaries lists. Others delivered the packages to needy people in distant villages using their own cars at their own expenses.

5. What problems and challenges did you face? How did you deal with them?

• Inability to access the rebel controlled areas of the eastern provinces. Inspite of

extensive discussions with the UN, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Orthodox Church and others, when it was understood that it would not be possible to implement both the Diakonia and EBF funded projects as planned, the decision was made to redesign both projects and do the distributions through local churches in the government controlled areas.

• In one church there was no place to store the packages, so they distributed everything at once.

• For some other churches, although it was already described to them, to fill the forms

became a pretty challenging issue in the beginning because they wanted to distribute in one day. After the explanation, they reshaped the way to work with people and the distribution went much better after that.

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6. Did you partner or collaborate with other agencies? Describe.

The initial design of the project required that the Baptist Union coordinate the EBF project with the Diakonia funded project, which would have included the Orthodox Church. Second it was to partner with the UN in order to transport the supplies into the rebel controlled areas. Thirdly, it needed to register and get the appropriate approvals from the Ministry of Social Affairs. There was also much discussion of whether the Baptist Union should register with the rebel authorities (as they were being asked to). The decision was not to do this as it would have meant recognizing their legitimacy over the areas they control.

Once the project was redesigned, it was implemented directly through local churches. Church members were looking for needy people in their areas. Local social services did not have complete lists of IDPs as there were people with documents lost, who were in severe need and were not registered with the social services.

7. What lessons have you learnt till date that will help you improve the project if you

receive more funding?

• The political and military situation on the ground can change quickly and unpredictably, which in turn can affect the way the project is implemented. In future project designs, there needs to be flexibility in how the project is implemented if the situation on the ground changes.

8. Please tell us two stories of people/families who were assisted. Provide pictures if possible.

The stories and pictures are in a separate attachment. 9. Provide a detailed financial report of expenses

Please below on the next page.

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* It was six trips of a 1,000 kms each. Notes on the Budget

• There needs to be more discussions and maybe even of training with the local churches

before distribution is done so that they understand how to do the registrations and distributions properly.

• The idea of reducing the number of products in the packages in order to increase the

amount being given was a good one. Beneficiaries noticed the quality and quantities in the packages and pointed it out. They really felt somebody cares for them.

Item Unitprice(EUR)

Noofunitspermonth

Numberof

Months

BudgetTotal(EUR)

Expenses(EUR)

Variance

Foodpackagesforadults 18.00 1,200 3 64,800 66,646 +1,846Foodpackagesforchildren 15.00 300 3 13,500 12,650 -850Hygienepackagesforadults 12.00 1,200 2 28,800 25,762 -3,038Hygienepackagesforchildren 15.00 300 2 9,000 8,791 -209Coalforheating 70.00 105 1 7,350 7,095 -255Coveringrent 900.00 5 1 4,500 4,440 -60Localcoordinatorsstipends 200.00 6 3 3,600 3,534 -66TransportationtoDnepropetrovsk 0.90 6,000* 1 5,400 3,529 -1,871Implementationtransport 2.00 2,500 1 5,000 4,897 -103Officestationery 1.00 50 1 50 0 -50Logisticianandworkersalaries 846.58 2 6 10,160 10,160 0AUCECBofficeoverheads 3,000.00 1 5 15,000 15,000 0Potato 0.15 31,040 1 4,656 0

Total €167,160 €167,160