SUS Inima has to date helped tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees by finding them a place to live, covering their basic needs or providing them with education. It also offers them psychological support to deal with war trauma. The infrastructure to help refugees navigate Romania's economic and legal framework is being set up. This is all with the goal of enabling them to integrate into Romanian society as smoothly as possible, making them feel at home. We talked to SUS Inima's Lu Knobloch.

EESC info: What prompted you to start your project or initiative?

SUS INIMA developed the intervention and crisis response programmes because, on a local level, an entity was needed that could collaborate with public and private bodies, whilst ensuring transparency and a valid collaboration platform for all willing stakeholders to provide assistance. And the fact that the majority of refugees from Ukraine were women and children, many of whom were abroad for the first time and had no experience in legal paperwork, planning trips, etc. The situation has been more complicated due to the language barrier.

How has your project been received? Have you had any feedback from the people you've helped? (Can you give us an example, if you have any?)

Initially the help offered was received with a certain sense of reluctance, however, the number of grateful beneficiaries of all types of intervention actions, support or supply of a variety of services, be it accommodation, transport, coverage of basic needs (food and CRIs) as well as education has increased significantly.

How will you use this specific funding to provide further help in the community? Are you already planning any new projects?

The specific funding will be used on two channels: 1) psychological support to refugees, primarily for children in order to help them deal with trauma; 2) developing a new initiative outlining economic and social cohesion, in the sense of setting up an infrastructure that can assist and advise refugees with a basic understanding of the legal and economic framework for Romania and actively promote and assist with finding employment or opening a local business, thus promoting active citizenship and sustainable societal inclusion.

What advice would you give to other organisations in terms of achieving results with such activities and programmes?

• Focus on cooperating with the local authorities, stakeholders and NGOs instead of competing,
• And base all programmes or initiatives you want to develop on case studies of the actual needs of beneficiaries.

Do you see solidarity fatigue with Ukrainian refugees kicking in if the war in Ukraine persists? What can and should civil society organisations do to prevent this from happening? Could the EU play a positive role here?

Solidarity is still at a high level. However, the volume of support provided by local communities is decreasing due to resource exhaustion. One solution to the existing needs is continuation of support and aid provided to the refugees in terms of their integration within the local communities they are in. Additionally, simplification, to a certain extent, of paperwork and procedures needed for Ukrainian refugees to be employed, open a company, get access to bank accounts, insurance and medical services. This is needed in order to ensure a sustainable decrease in financial dependence on external sources. Civil society is playing a key role in the development and implementation of aid deployment and support of the refugees. The EU can help with creating broader networks at the EC level, thus supporting and facilitating a know-how exchange that can be beneficial to all parties involved: implementors and beneficiaries.