To help here and now: 12 years of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation's programme. BLOG by Oleksandr Vyshniakov, the director of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Centre
To help those who are in trouble here and now is the mission of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation's “Targeted Assistance” programme. This month it is 12 years of operation.
For 12 years already people have been receiving targeted individual assistance, thanks to which tens of thousands of Ukrainians could survive, change their lives for the better and realize their dreams which were previously unattainable due to illness.
Now the dream of 11-year-old Volodia from Mariupol, a talented boy who dreams of a career in music, will come true. Vova learned to read notes before he began to speak. Music became his high calling. But the child's dream was threatened because of a disease - a humerus cyst, with which the load on the right arm is contraindicated.
The boy was operated on, but there was a relapse: the cyst eroded the bone tissue. The void had to be filled with an expensive bio-implant. The single mother had no money for such an operation. So, she turned to Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center.
Today, the 11-year-old flutist is again does his favourite thing - he resumed his studies almost immediately after the operation, even without removing the bandage off his hand. His teachers predict the boy a great musical future. The dream is stronger than pain, and now the child is sure: his dream is feasible.
In the last four years, the “Targeted Assistance” programme has been significantly expanded. The war brought new tragedies and new problems that people could not solve alone. Over three and a half years of the Humanitarian Center’s operation the targeted assistance to people in need has been one of the main tasks.
Over 41 months of the programme under the Humanitarian Center, more than 50,000 people received this kind of assistance. 5,000 of them are children.
A year ago, 33 civilians were injured in Mariinka due to shelling. One of the women received fragment wounds of the head and back, the other - a gunshot wound of the leg.
Both needed urgent operations. The doctors were ready to operate, but a serious problem arose - the lack of necessary medications. They were delivered by the Humanitarian Center’s employees.
The amount of people, who were wounded and received prompt assistance, is several hundreds. Moreover, it was important not only to save these people’s lives, but also to ensure their full recovery, particularly with regard of the wounded children, whose rehabilitation has become a separate direction of the programme.
We all want the peace to come as soon as possible. But while it won’t come, the Humanitarian Center will be where the people suffer. It is necessary to support everyone who is waiting for help.
