Humanitarian cash assistance
Multi-purpose cash assistance is provided to the most vulnerable categories of the population to cover basic needs, including food and hygiene. The amount of multi-purpose cash assistance is 3,600 UAH per month per 1 household member for 3 months.
During this winter season, our organisation is providing cash for heating assistance (for the purchase of solid fuels such as coal, firewood, briquettes, or pellets or for the payment for heating utilities) to households living in rural and peri-urban areas facing difficulties to cover their winter heating needs. The amount of cash for heating assistance for solid fuels is 21,000 UAH per household for the whole season, and for heating utilities the amount will be based on government tariffs for each heating source.
The programmes are aimed to assist low-income households in prioritised areas of Zaporizka, Donetska, Luhanska, Kharkivska and Khersonska oblasts who belong to vulnerable categories and are in these areas at the time of application.
Step 1: Find out if you are eligible for Cash Assistance from the Estonian Refugee Council
The programmes are currently ongoing in prioritised areas of Zaporizka, Donetska, Luhanska, Kharkivska and Khersonska oblasts and targeting low-income households who belong to vulnerable categories and are in these areas at the time of application. Prioritised vulnerable groups:
- Single parent headed household
- Female-headed household
- Households with pregnant women
- Households with 3 or more children under 18 years of age
- Households with children under 2 years of age
- Household whose members have a disability of the 1st or 2nd group
- Household whose members need expensive medical treatment or care
- Households of elderly people (60+)
- Household whose dwelling was partially or fully destroyed due to the conflict
- Household with members who were injured or died due to the conflict
Humanitarian cash assistance is provided on the basis of an individual assessment of households, taking into account various socioeconomic and vulnerability criteria. All vulnerabilities must be confirmed by relevant documents. The presence of a category is a prerequisite for participation in the programme, but is not a guarantee of receiving cash assistance. The decision on pre-approval is made on the basis of information provided by the primary applicant representing the household in communication with the Estonian Refugee Council team. The cash assistance is transferred to the bank account indicated by the primary applicant or by another method of your choice (cash collection at bank or post branches).
Rapid MPCA response: Households that have been displaced, mandatory evacuated or directly affected by shelling/rocket attack within the last month can reach out to their local authorities for information on humanitarian organisations working in the area and how to access their support. In this case, one of the above events must be confirmed by relevant documents.
Households receiving similar assistance from other humanitarian organisations will be excluded from the Estonian Refugee Council's assistance programmes.
Eligible households can receive multi-purpose cash assistance from the Estonian Refugee Council once per year. Exceptions: It is possible to re-apply for multi-purpose cash assistance no earlier than six months after receiving the previous payment if the household has acquired a new vulnerability status at the time of the re-applying. These rules do not apply to highly vulnerable households belonging to categories of rapid MPCA response.
Note: Households can request and receive assistance from other humanitarian organisations after ending the assistance period of three months without the need to wait, subject to the eligibility and selection criteria of each organisation.
Step 2: Register for Cash Assistance
Face-to-face registration
The ERC team will identify locations for face-to-face registration which have high humanitarian needs and in coordination with the UN and other humanitarian partners. Information details about the registration locations will be communicated with affected populations through local authorities at the settlement level.
If you live in areas affected by the war and need humanitarian assistance, reach out to your local authorities for information on humanitarian organisations working in your area and how to access their support.
Online registration
If you are currently residing in the programme area and have special circumstances, you can submit online request here:
Registration will be open on Mondays and at times when our operational capacity allows and for pre-selected targeted areas with higher humanitarian needs and in coordination with the UN and other humanitarian partners.
We will send you a notification of the results of your request to the email address specified in the request. Please read the conditions carefully before submitting the request!
Step 3: Fill in the online application (for online registration only)
If your application has been pre-approved, you can proceed to fill out the online form. To start filling out the online application form, you will need to enter your mobile phone number. If your mobile phone is approved, you can fill out the online application form here:
Step 4: Wait for your application to be processed
After filling out the application form, our team will review the information you have provided and, if necessary, inform you of the need to provide additional information to the email address specified in the application form. After the final confirmation, the payment will be sent to the bank account indicated in the application or by another method of your choice (cash collection at bank or post branches). You can check the status of your application on this page by entering your phone number and tax number:
The decision to create an application is voluntary, and the information provided remains confidential. The information you provide during the call and in this form will only be used for the vulnerability assessment of your household and for programme assessment purposes. The information collected will be shared with the programme evaluation team and be only accessible by the team members. The results of the assessment will be shared with programme donors in a non-identifiable manner. If you have any questions or concerns about the information being collected with this form, please contact us through the online form.
To get information about the programme, find out how to register, request technical support, leave feedback or a complaint you, can contact the Estonian Refugee Council hotline at 0-738-617-998 from Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 16.00 or leave feedback/complaint online.
Please be aware, all humanitarian aid is free! If someone asks you to pay, do something inappropriate or perform any favour or sexual action in exchange for help, say no and call our hotline 073-861-79-98.
In the future, the list of requirements for beneficiaries or target regions may be changed and the list of categories expanded.
The programme is implemented with funding from the Directorate General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA/USAID), Ukraine Humanitarian Fund managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), and the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.