In the Myrhorod community, located in Poltava region of Ukraine, every household tells a story of daily hard work and a deep love for the land. Well-tended flowerbeds, cosy homesteads, and fertile gardens and orchards all speak to one truth: life goes on, even in the shadow of war.

We are raising donations in Estonia to ensure daily meals in two hospitals in Gaza City. With the support of Estonian donors, we can provide essential food aid that gives patients the strength to recover and supports doctors and nurses who are working under difficult conditions to save lives. Do not look away. Help break through hunger. Make a donation on the Estonian Refugee Council website. Registration has opened in Estonia for the new season of the Start Smart training on artificial intelligence, aimed at young people aged 15–29 with a refugee background. In Ukraine, we are launching a new entrepreneurship programme to help people affected by the full-scale war build sustainable sources of income. In Armenia, we have set up hydroponic greenhouses to help schools cope with climate change and ensure access to food in water-scarce conditions. The greenhouses also serve to strengthen children’s knowledge of the environment. Also in Armenia, four community councils were launched in August to help make the voices of people with refugee backgrounds better heard in standing up for their rights.

In early August, the Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) team deployed to Zaporizhzhia oblast to deliver urgently needed assistance to residents of Bilenke, a village coping with the aftermath of a recent attack.

In the fields just beyond Barvinkove, a small town in Kharkiv oblast, the late-summer sun shines over quiet pastures. From a distance, the scene looks peaceful—cows grazing slowly, a young calf nearby, the landscape seemingly untouched. But behind this stillness is a story of survival, strength, and the long journey of recovery in a community scarred by war.

“When I found out I had received the funding, it gave me a real boost. It renewed my motivation to keep going with beekeeping,” says Yevhen, a lifelong beekeeper from Kharkiv region, Ukraine. For 36 years, beekeeping has been more than just a livelihood for Yevhen—it’s been a way of life. But when war came, everything changed.

On 8 and 9 August, the Opinion Festival took place in Paide, where we, together with the Estonian Human Rights Centre and the Office of the Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner, organised a discussion on structural racism, and Estonian Refugee Council Director Eero Janson took part in a discussion on humanitarian funding. In cooperation with the Integration Foundation, we help foster mutual understanding, trust, and civic engagement among third-country nationals through a variety of events held across Estonia. In July, we organised a summer camp in Kloogaranna for 38 children of Ukrainian frontline workers to support their well-being and develop their social skills. In Ukraine, we have provided cash-based humanitarian assistance to nearly 309,000 people. In Armenia, new self-help groups have started their work, supporting mental health and independent living. In Georgia, we are about to launch training sessions to strengthen the capacity of local NGOs and civil society organisations to better respond to various challenges. In Jordan, agricultural training for 40 Syrian refugee and local community women has been completed. As a next step, 12 of these women will receive support to establish hydroponic greenhouses on their home plots.

The Estonian Refugee Council supports the self-sufficiency of women-led households in vulnerable situations in Jordan through a training programme that provides new knowledge and practical skills for growing food and generating income. This June, the first ten women from Syria completed hydroponics training and will now be able to deliver similar training within their communities, thereby increasing knowledge of water-efficient agriculture across the region.