The tragedy in Vostochny micro-district of Mariupol. A year after

It's been a year since the tragedy in Mariupol. Vostochny micro-district suffered severe shelling on January 24, 2015. 31 people died, over a hundred were injured. By decision of Rinat Akhmetov, the Humanitarian Center provided full support to 71 adults and 9 children who required an urgent treatment. During the first several months most of them were provided with medical treatment and discharged from hospitals. Four more severely injured children were getting support during the whole 2015.

For all this year 15-year-old Liza Nikolayenko was fighting for the right to live a full life. The girl was severely injured. The shelling reached her on the street. A shell fragment hit her hip and fractured her arm bone. "I didn't even think that everything could end well. I thought people did not survive in the situations like that. And when I came to my senses, I saw dead people lying on the ground. And everything around us was on fire", ‒ Liza shared her memories.

The girl had several surgeries in Kyiv, she wore Ilizarov apparatus and had a titanium plate implanted in her fractured arm bone. Afterwards Liza was undergoing rehabilitation in a special sanatorium in Odesa, now she is back home. It is planned to remove the plate from Liza's arm in late January. Finally, the girl's arm will be fully operating.

"Four children with the most severe injuries had medical treatment and rehabilitation during the whole year. Children from 3 to 15 years old were provided with medical supplies and rehabilitation equipment from the Humanitarian Center. Some of them are just learning to walk and work out their arms again. Their stories have become part of life and work of our employees, who really worried about them and did everything possible to help", ‒ Iryna Temerko, the Head of 'Targeted Assistance' at the Humanitarian Center, shares.   

Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center provided the victims of Mariupol tragedy with complex assistance:  medical treatment, psychological support and food. More than 500 families, who had their homes destroyed, were provided with food packages.

The families, who lost their loved ones or had their family members injured, were supported by the Humanitarian Center's psychologists. This support of experts helped many of these people to get back to life and overcome their fears. In one of the families a 9-year-old child was scared to come back to their apartment that was not damaged. They could return home only six months later. During this whole period the girl and her mother were provided with psychological consultations. And there were many cases like that. In February 2015 the Center's psychologists started a large-scale operation in Mariupol schools to help children cope with psychological trauma after the shelling.    

Over the entire period of its operation Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center provided targeted assistance for medical treatment to more than 20,000 adults and children. 49,000 children and 6,000 adults have been provided with psychological support.