«Children become ill because of war». How to get targeted assistance?

Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center keeps on helping Donbas residents. Ordinary people, who are forced to live in the armed conflict area, badly need help and support.

A large family Baban from Krasnohorivka in Donetsk region lost their home due to shelling. Children's health has deteriorated a lot, they still can not forget how they were starving. Now the family lives at the neighbours' and really needs help.

Every week they come to check their home, hoping that it was not robbed by looters. The building is completely destroyed. Everything was damaged: the gate, the walls, the fence. Marina remembers how they miraculously survived during the shelling.

"My son was sleeping in the living room. Shell fragments flew into the room. His leg got burns from a fragment. He jumps out immediately, and the second shell hits the window, where my girls and I were sleeping", – Maryna Baban tells.

For several months the family was hiding in the basement, which almost became their grave. "There was nowhere to hide in the basement: the ceiling board collapsed, there was a hit in the foundation", – the woman explains.

For several months these people lived in unbearable conditions, with no water and electricity. "Everything was damaged, ruined. We cooked on wood fire! We were really starving during the first year of war", – the woman shares. 

Eight-year-old Dasha got psoriasis due to continuous stress. The eldest daughter Lena started losing her eyesight, which was weak in the first place. Now the family is getting help from the Humanitarian Center.

"My children have forgotten what bread is. Later we started getting help from Rinat Akhmetov, thank you so much for that. It really saves us", – Baban explains.

Over the entire period of its operation Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center issued more than 11,786,000 food packages on both sides of the contact line; it also provided targeted assistance for medical treatment and surgeries to more than 8,000 adults and children.

"Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center is paying special attention to children, – Igor Khadzhynov, the Head of "Targeted Assistance" program, shares. – All the projects are aimed at helping civilians who found themselves in difficult circumstances in the armed conflict area. We are trying to provide the most efficient assistance to those who need it the most".

Who can be provided with assistance?

Targeted medical assistance can be provided to:

• residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions;
• internally displaced persons who have a corresponding certificate.

Targeted medical assistance is provided to children belonging to the following benefit-entitled categories:

• families raising orphans and children under custody;
• large families with three and more children under 18;
• single mothers or widows with children under 18;
• families who found themselves in difficult life circumstances (families with more than one severely ill person).

Targeted medical assistance is provided to adult civilians belonging to the following benefit-entitled categories:

• single mother/father or grandmother/grandfather taking care of a child;
• a child and his/her mother/father, who suffered due to military actions, car accident, fire, etc.
• a young man/lady from 18 to 25 years old who need help in medical treatment/surgery of a curable disease.

The applications for targeted medical assistance can be left via the Humanitarian Center's hotline 0800 509 001 or sent via email [email protected].