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.
- At the start of the war, the Z Zurich Foundation launched a campaign to support humanitarian efforts, pledging to match donations up to a value of CHF 1 million. In just four weeks, it raised CHF 2 million (including matching from Z Zurich Foundation) to help the victims of the crisis. The amount raised from individual donations was the largest in the Z Zurich Foundation’s 49 years of existence.
- In addition to this campaign, which benefits three international organizations (International Rescue Committee, International Committee of the Red Cross & Save the Children), the Foundation has made over 20 donations to smaller local and international organizations assisting people affected by the crisis.
- Employee engagement at our global headquarters in Switzerland in the form of a cooking competition translated into a donation of USD 27,000 from the Z Zurich Foundation for the World Food Programme’s Special Appeal for Ukraine.
This appeal aims to provide food assistance to people fleeing the conflict. WFP teams are setting up operations and hubs in numerous locations in neighboring countries. Funds will be used to procure and deliver food, and provide food vouchers and cash transfers where it’s still possible to source food locally so that we support local economies and communities. - Zurich North America’s Finance and Actuarial team raised USD 21,180 (a total which includes a matching sum from the Z Zurich Foundation) through a Cooking for Ukraine fundraising campaign. The money will provide shelter, food and medicine for Ukrainian families.
- In August, Zurich Austria presented a EUR 10,000 check from the Z Zurich Foundation to local charity Austrian Aid to support the work they are doing for people displaced by the war in Ukraine. The donation will finance 10 tons of clothing, food and goods.
- Insurance cover: Generally speaking in most of EMEA, Zurich customers who choose to host refugees on a temporary basis in their homes (owned or rented) remain covered for household insurance and do not have to inform us of the change. Regarding car insurance, European customers who wish to use their vehicles in support of the crisis in Ukraine will be covered in accordance with local regulations.
- For those impacted by the war, travel insurance provider Cover-More Group is offering free medical online consultations, free prescriptions, and support with medical costs, in partnership with Air Doctor and Cover-More’s travel assistance business, World Travel Protection. To set up a video call with a doctor, refugees can contact Air Doctor via WhatsApp, Telegram or Viber on +972541465157 and leave their name, reason for seeking medical advice, contact details and preferred language. Cover-More has also partnered with NGO unconnected.org to help more than 10,000 Ukrainian families stay connected with phone credit. Unconnected.org’s #ConnectUkraine program supports Ukrainian refugees by topping up their phone credit using both private and corporate donations.
- On April 7, 2022, together with UNICEF, the Z Zurich Foundation launched the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health, an initiative to address the shortage of funding and action in support of young people’s mental wellbeing.
- The Coalition’s first campaign was to raise funds for programs to support the mental health and psychological well-being of young refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine. The Foundation pledged to match every donation made to the campaign up to a maximum of CHF 1 million. The Zurich Group donated an additional CHF 1 million.
- Separately, over the next six months, the Foundation is collaborating with specific NGOs in Slovakia, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and the west of Ukraine to provide mental health and psychological support services to refugees and displaced people.
- The League for Mental Health is engaging in Slovakia
- The organization Fundacja Centrum will work in six cities in Poland
- Terre des Hommes will act in Moldova, Romania and Hungary
- In addition, the Z Zurich Foundation is also supporting ICRC to provide similar support in Ukraine
- Rooms and infrastructure at the Zurich Development Center in the city of Zurich have been made available for integration and language courses for Ukrainian refugees.
- Zurich is cooperating with local authorities in Switzerland on labor market integration with the aim of hiring Ukrainian refugees. Zurich is also helping refugees navigate the employment market in Switzerland. Initiatives include help with CV writing and interview training with English-speaking volunteers.
In Barcelona, Bratislava and Krakow, Zurich is looking to fill IT vacancies with Ukrainians. - Group Technology & Operations has delivered more than 50 refurbished Dell laptops to Ukrainian refugees, hosted by Zurich employees or their families in Europe. The scheme is currently operating in Switzerland, UK, Poland, Bratislava, Spain, Sweden and Austria. The laptops, which come with Microsoft Office installed, are available to Ukrainian guests who are in need of devices, particularly for work or study.
- The team has delivered another 45 laptops to the Red Cross in Switzerland to issue to Ukrainian refugees, housed in their shelters.
- Across Europe, employees are using paid volunteer days to support humanitarian efforts, typically helping refugees settle into new countries or raising funds and donations. Zurich has increased the number of volunteering days in many European countries to make it easier for employees to offer this support.
- Employees hosting refugees: Over the past year, hundreds of Zurich employees and their immediate families worldwide have opened their homes to people fleeing Ukraine. Based on those who have self-declared, we know that more than 190 employees and / or their immediate families across 16 countries have hosted almost 500 Ukrainian guests between them.
