The NGO DESPRO, together with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, continues infrastructure restoration efforts in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions, which suffered damage as a result of russian aggression, as part of Swiss assistance to Ukraine.

In February 2025, with funding from Swiss Solidarity, the Swiss organisation Helvetas launched the “Strong Community” project. Its goal is to help people affected by the war in Ukraine prepare their housing for the winter, restore access to water supply and sanitation, and support local organizations through grants for recovery projects.

The “Sylna Hromada” initiative builds on the previous efforts of the “Repair Facilitation Ukraine" project, implemented by Helvetas and DESPRO with funding from Swiss Solidarity from 2022 to 2025.

Within the “Sylna Hromada” project, the efforts and expertise of Helvetas and its local partner organisations, including DESPRO, focus on the following key areas:

• Restoration of water supply and sanitation infrastructure damaged by hostilities, and ensuring community residents have access to water and hygiene facilities — particularly in schools, healthcare institutions, and public spaces. All works will incorporate energy-efficient solutions to increase system autonomy and reliability, ensuring access to clean drinking water even during power outages.
• Repair of multi-apartment buildings rendered uninhabitable or unsafe due to damage, lacking protection from snow, rain, and seasonal weather conditions. Priority for repair will be given to households headed by women, elderly residents, persons with disabilities, large families, and families with small children. In addition, 12 heating points and bomb shelters in Kharkiv region communities will be equipped with essential supplies, including generators, solid-fuel stoves, and furniture. These facilities will offer critical support during power outages and severe cold, and will function as bomb shelters operated by municipal authorities or civil society initiative groups.

The “Sylna Hromada” project also focuses on supporting local recovery initiatives. Civil society organizations (CSOs) engaged in recovery will receive grant support, enabling them to respond swiftly and effectively to housing and community infrastructure repair needs.

Vyacheslav Sorokovskyi, project team leader at DESPRO, commented:

“Recovering communities is a challenging task, especially in those areas of Kharkiv region that continue to suffer from Russian strikes on public infrastructure. Yet DESPRO’s expert team already has significant experience in restoring facilities under such conditions. In previous stages of cooperation with Helvetas, we restored 45 water and sanitation systems using energy-efficient technologies and repaired 30 apartment buildings in communities across five regions - improving living conditions for nearly 200,000 Ukrainians. We apply our own developed approaches and actively engage with local authorities and civic initiatives, which brings the highest impact.”

Petr Base, Head of the Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation branch in Ukraine, added:

“Infrastructure restoration is one of the top three focus areas for Helvetas in Ukraine. We do more than just repair homes or water systems - we actively collaborate with municipalities and civil society, involving all stakeholders in joint action. Every day of war brings new destruction, and unfortunately, international assistance is shrinking. That’s why we don’t just rebuild - we empower local initiatives. Helvetas invests in developing civil society organisations so they can become drivers of change. One of our contributions is the creation of Methodical Guidelines for CSOs involved in recovery.”

The “Sylna Hromada” project foresees that, during 2025–2026, DESPRO will take part in the restoration of at least 11 water supply and sanitation systems and 10 damaged multi-apartment buildings in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

The “Sylna Hromada” project is implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation (Switzerland) and the NGO DESPRO (Ukraine) as part of Swiss support to Ukraine, funded by Swiss Solidarity.