The International Organization for Migration, with the support of the German government, will be leading the two-year program for business support. 5 million euros has been allocated for its implementation. Assistance will be provided to existing businesses as well as new entrepreneurs. Training programs for financial management, accounting, and business planning have also been developed. The project also allows for non-monetary grants of up to 5 thousand euros. Since 2014, the International Organization for Migration, together with financial donors, has helped more than 5,000 internally displaced Ukrainians who’ve suffered as a result of hostilities in Donbas.
“We’ve been meeting different business owners and it was basically a very similar picture for the different ones, all of them have created quite successful businesses. Some of them have already employed other IDPS. So the impression that we got was that this is the right tool to create employment, give people opportunity to earn an income and they can have a great income for their families and households,” says Judith Boehnke, Project Manager of KFW German Development Bank.
“Other activities relate to social cohesion, to the rehabilitation of infrastructure, or the provision of what we called non-food items of hygiene kits and other basic necessities including, cash for coal, for instance. So we support people materially, but also for training, and ultimately the overarching objective is to bring back step by step dignity to those people who lost everything,” adds Thomas Lothar Weiss, Head of the Representative Office of International Organization for Migration in Ukraine.
