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The third millionth survival kit is issued by Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center today

14.05.2015

On May 14, Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center had a briefing in the "Ukrainian News" information agency. Rimma Fil, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Center, talked about passing the third millionth milestone in food package issuance to Donbas civilians and described a real portrait of humanitarian aid recipient. 

For 10 months Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center has been working in a regime of strict control over the quantity and the quality of products issued to civilian population of Donbas. And today one of the Humanitarian Center's issuing points issued the third millionth survival kit.

 

"As of today, the number of issued food packages makes 3,001,551, – Rimma Fil told at the briefing. – This is the number of survival kits that have been issued to Donbas civilians since the start of Humanitarian Center's operation in August, 2014. This number is huge, as well as the help of Rinat Akhmetov to his countrymen".

 

 

To transport this amount of products, which is about 39,000 tons, we needed 1989 heavy-duty 20-ton trucks. The operation geography of issuing and aid delivery points is quite impressive too: 19 districts and 61 towns of Donbas, including 12 districts and 26 towns in the peaceful areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, 3 districts and 23 towns and cities in non-government-controlled areas, 4 districts and 12 towns on the contact line.

 

 

 

"The points of humanitarian aid issue are open every day here. And every day volunteers issue food packages, giving people a chance to survive... Over this period 3,000 volunteers were involved in Humanitarian Center's operation. This is a huge peaceful army of those, who provide free help to the most vulnerable people only from the love to their countrymen and motherland. And this is the most important and the major expression of patriotism", - the Coordinator believes.

 

 

It is worth noting that the assistance from the Humanitarian Center is provided only the most vulnerable categories of civilians: children, elderly and disabled people.

 

"These people have no pensions, no social payments and no means of subsistence. They have no money to buy medications and food. These people never held weapons in their hands, they do not want war. For various reasons these cannot escape from the war. And this is the type of countrymen Rinat Akhmetov provides assistance for", – Rimma Fil said.

 

So who are the beneficiaries of humanitarian aid?  If we analyze the data over the past 10 months, the following picture emerges: the average age of recipient is 66.5 years old (men make 31%, women - 69%). 66 recipients are older than 100 years old, 3,778 people are from 90 to 100 years old, 45,178 people are from 80 to 90 years old. The oldest beneficiaries live in Yenakiieve and Yasynuvata, they are 113 and 110 years old. The Humanitarian Center also supports family-type orphanages. For example, there is Kovaliovy family in Donetsk that is bringing up 12 children, and Khomynets family from Dokuchaievsk that has 9 children. These families have the largest number of children among those, supported by the Humanitarian Center. Food packages are constantly provided to 30,899 disabled people of the 1st-2nd categories (incl. 1,664 disabled veterans of military actions), single mothers – 17,748.

 

The Humanitarian Center volunteers do not forget about elderly and disabled people, who cannot come to issuing points on their own. Food packages are delivered to their homes. Among these people there are 158 persons from 90 to 96 years old, 586 persons from 80 to 89 years old, and also 541 disabled persons of the 1st and the 2nd categories.

 

"We are keeping track of every person, who was provided with targeted assistance. And here is one of the examples. Fenia Khaylovna Weinstein, who is 100 years old, lives in Donetsk. She lives with her son Yakov, who is 76, and he has Down syndrome. They move only within their apartment, sometimes neighbors come to help them around the house. The woman didn't share much about her life, but we know that her daughter died a year ago. She told that earning daily bread was never easy for her. Now, during this difficult time, a social worker Natalia Nikolaeva is the greatest support for her. She regularly arrives with delivery. Not only she delivers food products to the old lady, but also takes interest about her health, visits of neighbors, weather and other little things. The main thing is that Fenia Khaylovna understands that she is not alone. Fenia Khaylovna and Yakov are always waiting for our employee", – Rimma Fil tells the story of one family.

 

 

 

It is known that besides the food aid for adults, Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center also provides packages for children under 2 years old. Children package contains all the necessary baby food: milk formula, cereals, fruit and vegetable purée.  As of May 12, Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center has already issued 201,469 children packages.

 

To secure continuous product delivery, the Humanitarian Center is sending three humanitarian convoys to Donbas this week: two convoys to Donetsk and one to Mariupol. "Today another convoy of the 19th Humanitarian Aid Drive of Rinat Akhmetov started for Donetsk. 15 heavy duty trucks will deliver 300 tons of products for renewed survival kits: sugar, cereals, peas, flour, oat flakes, pasta, sunflower oil, condensed milk, salt, tinned sardines, and pate. We will continue issuing aid to our older and younger countrymen. In May the Humanitarian Center is planning to deliver products to form 350,000 survival kits for adults and 42,000 packages for children", – the Coordinator said at the end of the briefing.