Small steps on the long road to recovery

The sum of direct losses inflicted on the housing stock of Ukraine as a result of the full-scale war, as of the end of May 2023, amounts to over $54 billion. According to the analytical department of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE Institute), the lion’s share of direct losses – $46.6 billion – comes from the destruction and damage to multi-apartment buildings. The total number of damaged properties in the housing stock as of June 2023 exceeds 163,000. The total area of damaged or destroyed properties is 87 million m², which is 8.6% of the total area of the housing stock of Ukraine.

Estimating losses in monetary terms is the simplest way to convey the scale of the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But behind the general statistics and calculations of resources needed for reconstruction, there are the life stories of individual people and families who were forced to leave their homes and seek shelter in different parts of Ukraine and the world.

Home is a symbol of strength and support. For those who are missing a sense of home, planning for the future becomes difficult. The loss of a home can mean the loss not only of physical space but also of a symbol of stability, belonging, and confidence in tomorrow. Despite the destruction and pain of loss, there are countless stories of help, unity, and hope.

Since the summer of 2022, the Fedir Shpyga Foundation has chosen reconstruction as one of its main areas of work. We have supported projects to restore buildings in rural areas of de-occupied regions, projects to repair bomb shelters in educational institutions, and initiatives to provide building materials for people who are independently restoring their own homes.

Through the experience of implementing projects, we have realized the importance of partnership with various stakeholders in the reconstruction process: bringing together several funds to scale up work, involving owners of damaged housing in joint project implementation, and collaborating with businesses. Partnerships have proven to be a mechanism for multiplying positive results.

One of the most vivid examples of such projects is assistance to homeowners’ associations (HOAs) in participating in grant programs of the State Fund for Energy Efficiency. The state fund program provides up to 7.9 million UAH in grants for repair work in damaged buildings. The only prerequisite for participation in this program is the availability of expert technical reports and certified design documentation, which requires the involvement of relevant professionals. Our foundation has decided to partner with residents of damaged buildings and has taken on the financing of the development of technical documentation.

Thanks to this, we have already ensured the restoration of 10 condominiums in Irpin, 10 in Mykolaiv, 9 in Izyum, 5 in Zaporizhzhia, and 3 in Kharkiv. This helped restore housing for almost 8,300 people. However, 24 more apartment buildings are carefully trying to raise funds to finance the necessary preliminary works to access state funding and start the restoration of their buildings.

We strive to increase assistance in housing reconstruction for Ukrainian families and share our experience with partners in Ukraine and abroad. For greater efficiency, the Fedir Shpyg Charitable Foundation has enlisted the support of the American Non-Profit Rebuilding Ukraine Association Inc. The basis of this cooperation is the pooling of resources and efforts to raise funds for the restoration and construction of residential buildings throughout Ukraine under the initiative “Restore Homes – Restore Hope.” We want to unite caring people around an incredibly important and sometimes difficult mission – to restore Ukrainians’ sense of home.