The Council for Internally Displaced Persons at the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration currently consists of 24 members, 11 of whom are IDPs.
This was reported during a meeting of the Coordination Headquarters for Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons chaired by Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Since its establishment in August 2023, the IDP Council has held 3 meetings and 4 extraordinary meetings. They discussed the needs of internally displaced persons.
The Council has developed its own plan, which includes the following tasks
- represent the interests of IDPs in local self-government bodies to implement regional policy in the area of ensuring and protecting the rights and interests of IDPs;
- to promote the activities of local communities in the adaptation and integration of IDPs;
- help create a safe living space in new places of residence.
Internally displaced persons usually applied to resolve housing issues, receive humanitarian aid and legal advice.
As part of the project ‘Supporting the capacity of the social protection system to register internally displaced persons’, seminars for internally displaced persons on ‘Labour relations under martial law’ are planned.
The Comprehensive Programme of Social Support for IDPs was approved in the region for 2024. The aim of the programme is to:
- Implementation of measures aimed at ensuring the rights and needs of IDPs are met;
- improving living conditions;
- create financial, organisational, legal and technical mechanisms to ensure a comfortable social climate and achieve positive changes in the standard of living and quality of life.
At the initiative of the Council on IDPs, in cooperation with the NGO Volunteer Headquarters of Zhytomyr, a needs assessment was conducted for internally displaced persons in Zhytomyr region.
Questionnaires with QR codes were placed in social protection departments, shopping centres and educational institutions in the region. A total of 1209 IDPs took part in the survey.