Today Rimma Fil, Coordinator of the Humanitarian Centre “Aid+Help” of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, has given a press briefing in the studio of Ukrainian News information agency. She talked about the problem of accommodating the displaced people in the coming cold weather and the humanitarian situation in Donbass.

Rimma Fil noted that the key challenge today is the need to move again for those who had left the anti-terrorist operations zone and lived in the areas of compact settlement. She said the government has to look for new places to settle the IDPs for the autumn and winter. Currently, they are staying at recreation centres and camps that are not heated as used only in summer.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, 226,432 people left the anti-terrorist operations zone for other regions, among them 75,024 children and 32,035 disabled and elderly (including 65,175 individuals temporarily displaced across Donetsk Oblast). The exact number of people living in the areas of compact settlement is not known.

“Our Humanitarian Centre is monitoring where and how many people are living in the compact settlement areas and what type of accommodation is available. We use the information provided by different agencies and oblasts. Thus, 980 people are living in the compact settlement areas in Kiev, 818 – in Kiev Oblast, 755 – in Lvov Oblast, 1,416 – in Odessa Oblast and 1,474 – in Kharkov Oblast. The Humanitarian Centre of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has evacuated 27,146 people since May, with 11,510 children among them,” said Rimma Fil. 

“We helped 6,235 people by accommodating them in Zaporozhye, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson oblasts, in recreation facilities some of which are owned by SCM Group, and other safe areas across Donetsk Oblast. In July and August, 772 people returned home. These are the people evacuated by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation from Kramatorsk and Slavyansk who are coming back to the liberated cities and towns. People want to come back home. If they can’t return, they look at other options – some of them find jobs, friends and relatives. Our Humanitarian Centre evacuated the most vulnerable – large families, the disabled and elderly, single mothers with small children, foster homes that have nowhere to come back or move to. We are responsible for them.” 

In August, the Humanitarian Centre “Aid+Help” started to look for places to settle about 3,000 people for the autumn and winter. The Centre has already paid for 600 people to be accommodated in Zaporozhye Oblast and is negotiating with Kharkov and Kiev oblasts. A hundred people from foster homes and family-type care facilities have moved from a recreation centre in Genichesk, Kherson Oblast, to a heated care home in Berdyansk. 

“SCM Group’s businesses have no heated recreation facilities. In general, it’s difficult to find any heated buildings to accommodate many people; Ukraine has a lot more summer recreation centres. It’s important that the government should develop an appropriate mechanism, while volunteers and NGOs help to look for accommodation and provide people with warm clothes,” said Rimma Fil. 

Oleg Dryuma, president of European Association of the rights of disabled people, agreed: “The government has no clear programme to help people who have to leave their houses located in the antiterrorist operations zone and save themselves and their families. There are about 800 disabled people in Odessa Oblast alone, all of them are bedridden and wheelchair-bound, and children who need to go to school. We have only two recreation facilities with heating appliances installed but we have no budget for moving, accommodating and feeding these people.”

The Humanitarian Centre “Aid+Help” of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has four key missions: evacuating people from the war zone; accommodating the internally displaced people; supplying the humanitarian aid; and rendering targeted help.