14 YEARS OF KINDNESS AND MERCY: A REPORTING CONFERENCE OF THE RINAT AKHMETOV FOUNDATION

The unique experience in helping civilians of the Donbas region and human lives this support changed. These were the key topics of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Reporting Conference held on 10 April in Kyiv, which presented the Foundation’s achievements in 2018.

For 14 years, the Foundation has been implementing nationwide projects aimed to fix social problems in the Ukrainian society and help people who found themselves in a difficult life situation.

In 2014, Rinat Akhmetov has established the Humanitarian Center, the largest humanitarian program in Ukraine operating within the Foundation’s framework. The main purpose of this program is to help the most vulnerable categories of civilian population in the Donbas: children, the elderly, people with disabilities, families with many children.

The Foundation is the only organization in Ukraine providing systemic and comprehensive help to children of the Donbas under a variety of programs, such as Peaceful Summer for Children of the Donbas, Rehabilitation of Wounded Children, Medicines for Children, I Can Hear Now. It also delivers children’s food parcels to dozens of towns and villages located along the confrontation line.

Efforts of the Foundation and its largest program, the Humanitarian Centerwent down in history, and its experience in providing help in the conditions of armed conflict is still unmatched in Ukraine as it helped save lives of more than one million people in the country’s east. Rinat Akhmetov’s help continues to come to the most distressed civilians of the Donbas: they have already received over 12 million food parcels, which people themselves call “survival parcels”.

At the Reporting Conference, the Foundation also presented current results of the Foundation’s ongoing programs and projects.

‘When an armed conflict broke out in the Donbas, a lot of woes, pain and tears momentarily came to our land. Back then, we didn’t have time to think and plan something. Rinat Akhmetov immediately set the task for the Foundation’s team to help. To help as much as possible, to help those who need it the most, to help where the situation is the most difficult. Thanks to these initiatives, people know that they haven’t been abandoned. Every day, they call and write letters to the Foundation, saying that this help means much more for them than simply food. These are truly survival parcels. This is the help that gives everyone power and a standing point,’ Natalia Yemchenko, member of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Supervisory Board said.

A survey held by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in late 2018 corroborates what Natalia Yemchenko said. More than half of all respondents believe that the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation remains the leading organization providing aid to civilians in the Donbas. In addition, 67% of Ukrainians believe that residents of the Donbas would not have survived without Rinat Akhmetov’s humanitarian aid. Almost 85% of respondents in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts agree with that.

One of the key events of the Reporting Conference was presentation of Hoping for Peace picture. This symbol of belief and hope was created by children who had to go through the horrors of war. When creating the picture, they invested all their love, joy and happiness they have lost in a moment. Thanks to the Foundation’s program Peaceful Summer for Children of the Donbas, the kids underwent a course of psychological rehabilitation and summer recreation. A premiere of video clips featuring children who created this picture was held before a broad audience. The boys and girls were telling about how they see the tragedy of their native land, and about the hope that comes to the region’s civilians together with Rinat Akhmetov’s help.

At the end of the conference, the guests received a Map of Good Deeds. Created by children who found new parents thanks to the Foundation’s program “No to Orphanhood!”, it will help everyone find their path to kindness. For lives are being saved every day thanks to Rinat Akhmetov.

THE RINAT AKHMETOV FOUNDATION: FACTS AND FIGURES

• 12 255 639 food parcels delivered to Donbas residents.
• 133 300 tons of humanitarian aid delivered to the Donbas by Rinat Akhmetov’s Humanitarian Center. It took 6663 trucks to deliver this aid.
• Over 50,000 persons received target help.
• Over 11,500 persons, including over 6 thousand children, received target help for medical treatment.
• Over 4000 children improved their health and received summer recreation.
• 9340 children accommodated in a family thanks to “No to Orphanhood!” program.
• Over 4300 medication packages delivered to seriously ill children living on both sides of the confrontation line.
• 91 children with a heart defect underwent a surgery thanks to Healthy Heart project.
• Over 100 rehabilitation courses held for children wounded as a result of the armed conflict.
• 141 children with impaired hearing received modern highly-sensitive hearing aid devices thanks to I Can Hear Now project.