00:00Victor Nayambala is from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
00:05and is based in Ukraine. Victor, welcome. On this anniversary, I wonder how you'd assess
00:10the situation across Ukraine four years into this conflict.
00:16All right, first of all, thank you very much for having me. Now, four years on, people are
00:22extremely tired and fatigued. You can see the chronic stress piling up. This is no longer
00:29just an emergency. It's a long, exhausting crisis. Families have lost their homes, their
00:34jobs, their savings, and in some extreme cases, also their loved ones. And we know that many
00:40people are displaced, both internally and also out of Ukraine. And this winter has particularly
00:46been the toughest in the last 10 years. We saw temperatures drop to up to minus 20 degrees.
00:53And there were constant hits on energy systems, which had a chain reaction, where we had lack
01:01of heating, lack of electricity, and in some cases also lack of water. So it's been a brutal
01:07winter. And right now, we cannot talk about resilience without really getting more support
01:15and resources to support those who are affected.
01:18What are your team's main objectives on the ground? What is it that you're trying to do?
01:26Right now, the first priority is to ensure emergency response, especially after strikes.
01:32Volunteers are among the first on the scene. Ukrainian Red Cross is very good at providing
01:38first aid, emergency evacuation, and also psychosocial support to people who have been affected.
01:44There's a lot of trauma. And particularly during this winter, we've been able to provide support
01:52such as heating equipment, generators that provide additional power and energy to building an
01:59infrastructure, especially civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals. We've also been
02:05providing support to people in need, especially the most vulnerable, such as old people, people with
02:12children and also people with disabilities, with cash and also relief items.
02:18I guess it's perhaps easy to quantify the physical damage and the toll that this conflict has taken.
02:25We talk about body count on both sides, and we can see physical disabilities that have been
02:32endured. The mental toll is very difficult to quantify, isn't it?
02:39Rightly so. And you know, four years into the crisis, we cannot just talk about people being
02:46resilient. There's a limit. And when you have children growing up, up to four years, others
02:52transitioning from childhood to teenage, under this type of circumstances, really, it's not normal.
02:59We have trauma that has led over a couple of years. And one thing people don't talk about as well
03:05is
03:06the type of mental health issues that first responders have to contend with as well. So these are areas that
03:14we also try to look at and we provide support, especially the Ukrainian Red Cross. They have a mental health
03:20health and psychosocial support program to try and address this type of issues.
03:27It's very easy watching this, I guess, outside Ukraine to feel helpless. I wonder what the international
03:34community, what can ordinary people do to try to help?
03:40There's many ways that people can offer assistance. We have a variety of governments across the world
03:46that are providing support through their embassies and also through other agencies. We have a lot of
03:53Red Cross organizations which are in country that also represent their countries. At country level,
04:00you can always reach out to your local Red Cross to find out how you can provide support to the
04:04Ukraine
04:04response. And also you can advocate through governments and also through different platforms
04:12to contribute towards the overall appeal to support people in Ukraine. And if you also have people
04:18from Ukraine who are residents in your countries, be considerate, provide them support, provide as much
04:27care and also guidance that you can, especially during these difficult times. There's many people who would
04:33wish to come back home. But given the ongoing circumstances and the crisis, it's very difficult.
04:39And we know that a lot of people from Ukraine are also homesick. They would love to come back home.
04:46But they also need to be able to have livelihoods to go back to their homes, especially those who are
04:52displaced. They need economic opportunities. And although we talk about emergency response, there's a huge need
04:57to also look into recovery, rebuilding infrastructure, ensuring that the economy is vibrant again,
05:05so that Ukraine can also contribute to the wider global economic community.
05:10Victor, good to see you. And thank you for coming on the program, Victor and Aumballa, from the International
05:14Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
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