Support for Ukraine
Last updated: 13.10.2023
Zurich and the Z Zurich Foundation have set in place various initiatives to help the huge numbers of people impacted by the war in Ukraine. Discover what we are doing for those who have stayed and those who have fled.
Zurich supplies generators and food supplements
A year and a half since Russia’s invasion, Zurich remains committed to supporting civilians in Ukraine and helping them to prepare for next winter.
Our latest delivery includes 146 small generators for kindergartens, hospitals, water pumping stations, universities, and regional and village administrations. We have also provided 12,500 packs of medicine and food supplements.
Two-thirds of the gasoline and diesel generators, which were purchased in Lithuania, have been distributed in the Kharkiv region and the remainder around the country.
Ninety percent of the supplements were distributed to people in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, who were forced to flee their homes.
Ukraine’s Emerland Charitable Foundation delivered both generators and food supplements, with the help of local humanitarian and volunteer organizations.
In this latest package of assistance, funds also went to an orphanage and special needs centre, both in the Kharkiv region.
The orphanage caters to 98 boys with disabilities. The money was spent on electrical and building equipment to maintain the facilities as well as tools for the workers.
The rehabilitation centre hosts 30 preschool and school age children with special needs. Among the equipment provided was a soft-floor puzzle to cover the floors of the main two rooms, damaged by shells in 2022.
Finally, we extended the maintenance warranty period of the nine big generators which we bought and delivered this spring for hospitals, orphanages and other institutions.
Zurich delivers generators and stoves to Kharkiv
As the world commemorates the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zurich has returned to the city of Kharkiv to deliver nine generators, 60 stoves and 14,700 woolly hats. The generators will help the following vulnerable groups survive bitter winter temperatures:
- Mothers and babies at a maternity hospital
- Children at an orphanage in the Luhansk Region
- Patients and staff at various hospitals
Zurich delivers 207 tons of direct food aid to Kharkiv
After a direct appeal on May 10 from Ukrainian parliamentarian Mariia Mezentseva, who represents Kharkiv, Zurich sent 207 tons of food aid to the war-torn city.
The train carrying essential food items, procured by Zurich, reached Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on June 8 after a five-day journey from Poland. Ukraine’s Emerland Charitable Foundation unloaded the 17 cargo containers into a warehouse at the station before distributing the products to humanitarian and volunteer organizations who, in turn, delivered food parcels to those in need.
The supplies provide basic food for 5,000 people for one month. They include non-perishable items such as oil, pasta, rice, baby formula, canned meat and long-life milk. The food was purchased in Poland with more than 90 percent coming from local producers.
The Ukrainian parliament tweeted about the delivery on June 10.
Zurich UK makes GBP 500,000 donation to support children affected by the war
Zurich UK has made a GBP 500,000 donation to Hope and Homes for Children to support the charity’s work in Ukraine, Romania and Moldova.
Before the crisis, 100,000 children were living in orphanages in Ukraine. Nine out of ten were not orphans but simply placed in institutions due to a lack of infrastructure to support them living at home. Many of these orphanages have been subjected to shelling and missile attacks.
The donation will:
- Help the charity provide emergency support. This includes the provision of food, blankets and protection for about 3,000 children (including those from orphanages) and parents struggling to survive in Kyiv.
- Support the emergency response with partner organisations in neighbouring countries.
- Continue Hope & Homes for Children ongoing work, providing emergency interventions for children and families at risk of separation.