REACT - Rapid Emergency Action through Community Transfer

Now in its fifth year, the full-scale armed conflict in Ukraine continues to create severe humanitarian needs in frontline and displacement-affected areas. In Kharkivska, Sumska and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, sustained hostilities, repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and prolonged disruptions to electricity and basic services have significantly weakened households’ ability to cope.

According to 2026 humanitarian planning assumptions, around 1.4 million people in frontline response areas face catastrophic needs. More than one quarter of households in frontline oblasts are assessed as being in extreme need. Particularly affected are families with children, internally displaced people, older people, people with disabilities, single female-headed households and people in hard-to-reach communities within 50 kilometres of the frontline.

Local services and state transit centres are overstretched, while existing response mechanisms do not always have the flexibility to address rapidly changing collective needs. The 2026-2027 winter season creates additional risks, as northeast and east Ukraine record the country’s highest cold vulnerability scores.

REACT is implemented by Caritas-Spes Ukraine in partnership with Caritas Switzerland. It combines mobile protection services, temporary accommodation with integrated support, and group cash transfers that enable communities to respond quickly to needs they identify themselves.

Three multidisciplinary mobile crisis teams operate in Kharkivska, Sumska and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. They conduct structured needs assessments and provide protection case management, psychosocial support, legal counselling and referrals to relevant services. At the Caritas-Spes Ukraine accommodation centre in Vasylkivska near Kyiv, voluntarily evacuated families with children receive up to three months of safe housing, psychosocial assessment, case management, child-friendly activities, education support and help in planning sustainable next steps.

Up to 15 group cash transfers, with a maximum of five in each target oblast and a value of up to EUR 15,000 each, support rapid community-led responses to collective and protection-related needs. A structured verification, review and approval process safeguards accountability while reducing response times.

The project will directly reach 2,286 people. Mobile protection services will support 638 people, temporary accommodation and integrated protection services at the Vasylkivska centre will reach 73 people, and group cash transfers will benefit 1,575 people.

By strengthening existing Caritas-Spes Ukraine structures and local decision-making capacity, the project avoids creating parallel systems. The operational tools, procedures and partnerships developed through REACT are intended to remain in place after the project ends.

REACT contributes to making humanitarian assistance in frontline Ukraine faster, more locally anchored and more accountable to the communities it serves. Group cash transfers recognise affected communities as first responders and give them the means to implement measures that benefit their members from emergency response through to recovery.