THE WORLD'S LARGEST HUMANITARIAN MISSIONS TO STEP UP SUPPORT FOR MARIUPOL IDPS
Mariupol continues to work to create high-quality social housing, train post-war recovery managers and recognize the city's tragedy at the international level. This was announced by Mayor Vadym Boichenko after meetings with representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Representatives of the city discussed the creation of new social housing for Mariupol residents with the project's main partner, the International Organization for Migration. According to the mayor, cooperation with IOM began in 2023 with a pilot project in Dnipro and was scaled up across Ukraine in two years. Thus, through the renovation of existing buildings, it was possible to provide quality social housing for the most vulnerable categories of the population.
The project started with the creation of social housing for 35 families in Mariupol. In 2024, we were already able to provide 284 families with housing, and by the end of 2025 we plan to provide quality social housing to more than 700 families in our community. All this was made possible thanks to the support of the French government and the International Organization for Migration, as well as our domestic partners, in particular the Rinat Akhmetov's Foundation
For their part, the partners emphasized the importance of helping IDPs from Mariupol and expressed support for the Mariupol City Council.
We have a very productive cooperation with you and we want to continue it. We are inspired by your work and resilience. We want to be together on the way to realizing your plans and are ready to support you and your partners
According to the mayor, based on the experience of reconstructing existing buildings, the project is being considered together with the Ukrainian government to expand the project. In particular, they are working on programs to renovate buildings, build new social housing, and improve loan programs for IDPs.
With partners from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, we discussed restoring justice for Mariupol and supporting the unique Community Recovery Academy project. As part of the latter, the team is working to train a new generation of managers who will be involved in the post-war reconstruction of Ukrainian communities.
The experience of reviving cities after the Second World War gives Ukraine not only hope for high-quality reconstruction, but also real cases of how to do it and what mistakes in urban planning should be prevented. We are grateful to our international partners for their support and to foreign professors for sharing their knowledge, but we clearly understand that it is we, Ukrainians, who will rebuild the territories destroyed by the enemy
The Mariupol City Council began cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner back in 2016, when the city authorities were learning how to effectively integrate IDPs from Donetsk region into the community.
I am glad that we have been and remain partners. I am proud of what we have done together, because I see real progress in our work. We are ready to continue to support you
Community Recovery Academy, founded by the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the NGO Mariupol.Reborn, aims to train municipal managers for the recovery period. The project is being implemented with the support of the UK Government under the UK International Development program and the International Republican Institute (IRI Ukraine) in partnership with Metinvest and SCM. The educational partners of the project are Metinvest Polytechnic and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
