On the last evening of February 2023, our Slovak NGDO platform Ambrela held the event: ‚The year of the war in Ukraine – how Slovakia helped in Ukraine‘ in the premises of the former Klarisky church in Bratislava in cooperation with the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for the Development of the Civil Society (ÚSV ROS) and thanks to the support of the Slovak Republic under the SlovakAid brand. This commemoration and policy event was a very good opportunity for demonstration and reflection of how civil society helped in Ukraine last year. Ambrela also distributed and presented a thematic Factsheet to the 90 high-level guests. In the Factsheet we prove (based on collected and analysed data from Slovak humanitarian organisations) that civil society in Slovakia has been involved in humanitarian aid in Ukraine to an unprecedented extent.

Slovak humanitarian organizations were able to collect up to 16.8 million euros to help people from Ukraine and to transport humanitarian aid there worth at least 22 million euros. These organizations helped not only in Ukrainian regions near the border with Slovakia, but also in areas near the front line. Eight of them (specifically: ADRA Slovakia, People in Need Slovakia / ČvO, Caritas Slovakia / SKCH and its local branch Caritas Spis, Step In, Slovak Red Cross, Integra Foundation, Carpathian Foundation) were awarded by the Ukrainian ambassador to Slovakia, Myroslav Kastran, during this commeration event.

„The activities of Slovak humanitarian organizations in Ukraine and their possibility of activating extensive resources could also be an inspiration for the Slovak government, which only donated 9 million euros to humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Despite the fact that Slovakia is a neighboring country, this ranks it in 27th place in the ratio of the volume of aid to GDP. The state also lagged behind in material aid, when it transported 850 tons of aid beyond the borders of its eastern neighbor, which is almost 13 times less than what Slovak civil society delivered there with its own resources. We believe that in 2023, when smaller donors may become tired (experiencing a donor fatigue), their place will be taken by the state as a strong, predictable and reliable donor,“ recalled Ambrela’s executive secretary Daniel Kaba in his speech during this commemoration and policy event.