Immediately after the war began, our members took urgent action by offering free roaming to customers in Ukraine from various local markets, fast-track employment opportunities for those displaced by the crisis, free SIM cards, and donations of recycled handsets. Early action also included distributing emergency supplies, providing cross-border transportation for victims of the conflict, and creating a donation page on websites to facilitate donations to organisations providing humanitarian assistance.

More recent activities include:

• Onboarding new staff members with refugee status, through the special accelerated administrative processes for people fleeing the war in Ukraine
• Assisting Ukrainian colleagues by providing instant networks (wifi) in the Poland – Ukraine border region.
• Distributing pre-paid SIM cards
• Offering temporary safe housing (often in hotels paid for by the company) for Ukrainian colleagues who fled Ukraine
• Providing Wi-Fi for orphanages outside of Ukraine for children who fled the conflict.
• Offering additional Ukrainian language news channels and children’s entertainment channels to television packages. Some of the channels are also available on mobile devices.
• Building additional masts and emergency buildings in the border region and train stations in Budapest to assist refugees during ‘stop-overs’ with charging stations and wifi to connect with loved ones.
• Implementing a policy that allows up to five paid leave days for volunteering

While these are actions that industry has already taken, as a trade association in the sector, GIGAEurope has committed to facilitating the dissemination of credible information. Therefore, we have placed on www.gigaeurope.eu links to our members’ websites, in order to facilitate direct access to relevant information that can be of support to the Ukrainian people.