2017: lives- measured results. BLOG by Oleksandr Vyshniakov, the director of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Centre
December is the time for summing up. Commercial structures strike their balances in hryvnias and dollars, industrial enterprises - in tons of manufactured products. Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center has its own, most important statistics - saved lives.
During the work of the Humanitarian Center - and this is already 40 months - more than a million people have been saved. And this is not a one-time action, as it happens after natural disasters. While the war is going on, people in Donbas need everyday help over and over again. Therefore 5 thousand of our volunteers have already issued 12 million product packages, which save people's lives every day.
The family of pensioners Dmytro and Halyna P. from the front-line village of Pervomaiske are those who will hardly survive without help. He has the Parkinson's disease, she has diabetes mellitus. They are saved by their love for each other. And by the assistance, provided by the Center.
In total, Rinat Akhmetov Center’s help covered more than 750 settlements of Donbas providing humanitarian aid. We do not ask for anyone's support, the Center needs only one thing - that no one interfere with our activities. Until February 2017, our assistance also reached to hundreds of settlements in uncontrolled territories, where 500 thousand of Ukrainian citizens need help no less than those on government-controlled territories. But on February 28, the blocking of the logistics center “Donbas Arena” and all fixed distribution centers in Donetsk and the region by the arrays deprived the civilians of this assistance. This, alas, is the result of the expiring year.
There was also a lot of good in 2017. On February 8, the “Healthy Heart” project was launched - we began systematically helping children with severe heart defects. The Center took over four regions at once: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kharkiv.
Four-year-old Nastia D., a girl from an IDP family, was one of the first for whom our Center had bought an occluder - a small implant at the cost of 100 thousand hryvnias, which closes the heart defect.
In general over 10 months, we have considered providing assistance in response to 31 applications from parents. The children underwent surgery - and now they are again enjoying the full-fledged life that was not available to them when they were ill. Nastia returned to sports dancing. According to her coach, she makes great strides.
So our work continues. More than 9,000 people received medical treatment assistance from the Humanitarian Center, more than half of them are children. For them, our support has become the only chance to return to a full-fledged life.
Being responsible for people’s lives is difficult, but honourable. Changing their lives for the better is a joy that compares to nothing. The Humanitarian Center employees are changing people’s lives and their own, too.
Mykhailo Katerynchak passed the way from the volunteer to the Head of "Humanitarian Aid" direction of the Center. In Mariupol, he met a volunteer Olena, who soon became his wife. Now the Center has a family for which helping people became the goal.
2017 is coming to an end. Summing up the results, we do not draw the line. In our work, this is impossible. There always are the people who need our help.
