SWEET- Supporting Women in Emergency with Environnement of Trust

The SWEET project – Supporting Women in Emergency with Enviroments of Trust, is ActionAid Italy’s response to the Ukrainian crisis. On the one hand, it promotes access to basic services and basic necessities for those arriving in Italy fleeing the war, and on the other, it immediately focuses on promoting a path of social and economic integration that allows the beneficiaries to lay the foundations for a new life.

The invasion of Ukraine on 24 February marked the escalation of a conflict that has deep roots. The violence of the aggression has triggered a drastic increase in humanitarian needs in the country; in fact, many civilians are still fleeing the fighting, and in many cases are seeking family reunification with people residing in other European countries, including Italy.

The exodus mainly involves women, mothers with children, who walk for days to reach neighbouring countries in extremely precarious conditions. The UNHCR estimates that 9,172,153 refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighbouring countries in search of safety since 24 February. A further 8 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine. An estimated 15.7 million people are in urgent need of protection and humanitarian assistance (https://www.unhcr.org/ukraine-emergency.html?query=ukraine).

In the Italian territories in which ActionAid operates, there are needs and criticalities linked, on the one hand, to the reception capacities of the landing contexts and, on the other, to the risk of social polarisation.

In Italy, ActionAid has promptly taken action to support the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking communities in the areas where we have been present for some time with projects of socio-occupational inclusion and empowerment in favour of women and foreign communities.