Surviving on the contact line. Volunteers deliver humanitarian aid to Sartana residents
900 Sartana residents received humanitarian aid from the mobile team of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center. This settlement is located near Mariupol, its outskirts observe continuous shelling.
The volunteers deliver humanitarian aid to the so-called "grey zone", which was formed as a result of military equipment withdrawal on both sides of the contact line, over 6 months ago. Sartana became the #195 settlement that was visited by our mobile team.
"It was the first visit of our volunteers to Sartana. Despite its close location to Mariupol and restored infrastructure after the August shelling, most of young people left the settlement. The remaining elderly people, and most of them belong to benefit-entitled categories, survive on the minimum pensions, without support of their children and families. We saw how much people needed our help due to the long queue near the issuing point. Some of them came to get in line since 3 am", – Yevheniya Rzaieva, the Head of "Humanitarian Aid" direction at the Humanitarian Center, shared.
Local authorities requested Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center to help the local civilians in Sartana. The representatives of authorities provided premises for our volunteers, prepared the list of civilians in need and helped to coordinate the queue during humanitarian aid issuance.
"There are about 5,000 benefit-entitled people living in the settlement, they belong to the Humanitarian Center's categories. Retired people over 65 years old were the first to receive humanitarian aid. In December we are planning to continue our visits to Sartana and help all residents of benefit-entitled categories that fall under the Humanitarian Center's criteria", – Yevheniya Rzaieva says.
The mobile issuance project of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center was launched in May 2015. Mobile food delivery allows helping people in "grey zone" villages of Donetsk region, where it is not possible to open a fixed issuing point.
As of November 30, 2015, our food packages have been provided to 69,500 people in the villages of Donetsk region on both sides of the contact line.
