Uniting for Good. Humanitarian Center invites volunteers

Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center has been operating for more than 10 months. During this period the Center issued three million survival kits for adults and 200,000 children packages for Donbas civilians. These volumes require huge human resources. Today there are 1700 volunteers working in the Humanitarian Center.

Arena of Charity

Donetsk stadium "Donbas Arena" is already called the Arena of Charity for a long time, as it is hosting the largest volunteer centre of Ukraine: the major logistic department of the Humanitarian Center, the place for delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid for peaceful residents in non-government-controlled areas. There are numerous packages and boxes towering on wooden pallets, the volunteers are to form survival kits out of these packages as soon as possible, so that the most vulnerable residents of ATO area receive food on time and in full.

Every day 500 volunteers come to the stadium to help their fellow countrymen and distract them from war. There are two the most difficult and important directions in their work: loading-unloading and a so-called "conveyor". The conveyor method was developed and implemented by volunteers themselves. The point is that volunteers are moving around the circle and their companions are putting food products in their bags. By the end of a circle each volunteer has a 12-kilo survival kit. Thanks to conveyor system, it takes them only 52 seconds to form one package.

The oldest volunteer working at Donbas Arena is 81 years old. The youngest is 18. Only adults of lawful age are taken to volunteers, as this work is physically difficult. Nevertheless, most of them are women. The average age is 55-60 years old. They are mostly unemployed.

Mobile assistance

Mobile teams of volunteers are the less numerous subdivision. It consists of 20 people only. 6 of them are volunteers of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, 14 people are the members of "Responsible Citizens", an organization that closely cooperates with the Center. Despite the small number of people in it, this "troop" is doing the most dangerous work – provides targeted food delivery to single and severely ill people, who cannot leave the house and get humanitarian aid on their own. Every day the volunteers visit their people under care. They often have to arrive to the hottest spots and deliver food packages under shelling, literally.

Mobile volunteer groups are not only product deliveries, but also psychologists – not by their profession, but due to necessity. Their wards are single people, who are receiving neither adequate attention, not basic human communication. That is why close communication with charity recipients and their moral support are included in volunteers' task.

Mobile groups are also engaged in search activity. When delivering food packages, they detect people who require humanitarian aid, but have never received it. Several times they found elderly ladies over 80 years old, who live alone in the whole section of building, not able to walk and practically starving. For example, when delivering food packages to Snizhne, the volunteers helped a disabled woman, who practically didn't eat anything for a week – she was bed-bound and had only water next to her.

There are different people working in mobile groups: psychologists, lawyers, ecologists, former employees of circus arts, ex-deputies, and others. They are only united by their will to help the most vulnerable people, who cannot take care of themselves, whose relatives moved or died, – people, who are left with their problems and difficult financial situation alone.

Assistance in the peaceful areas.

The volunteers of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center are working not only in ATO area, but also on peaceful territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The main volunteer point in government-controlled areas is logistic centre in Mariupol. Its goals are similar to the ones at Donbas Arena. The only difference is that survival kits from here are distributed to the settlements, located on peaceful territories, and on the contact line.

There are about 200 volunteers working in Mariupol now. These are men and women of 30-40 years old, mainly the employees of steelmaking enterprises, who help the Humanitarian Center when they are free from work.

How to become the Humanitarian Center's volunteer?

At the moment Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center especially needs volunteers at Donbas Arena. If you live in Donetsk and want to help your fellow countrymen, please address us at: 095 295 02 22, 063 908 02 22 or 067 644 02 22. If you live on peaceful territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but still willing to help, please call: 044 502 52 33 or send an email to: [email protected]