On 10 March, the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center presented its report for 2015.

Performance in 2015

In 2015, the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center provided assistance in four main areas: delivery and distribution of survival kits to adults and children under 35 months old, targeted assistance, psychological counseling, and provision of medicines. In October 2015, the number of people who received help from the Humanitarian Center reached one million.

“We called the report “Help to Survive”. These words perfectly describe our performance in 2015. Helping to survive those who need assistance most is an objective set by Rinat Akhmetov on the establishment of the Humanitarian Center,” said Rimma Fil, coordinator of the Humanitarian Center. “The number of people who found themselves in this situation runs into millions. The number of those who received help from the Humanitarian Center since its inception has exceeded one million and is 1,106,000 people today. As long as there are people in need of help, Rinat Akhmetov will be helping his fellow countrymen.”

The scope of work carried out by the Humanitarian Center in 2015 is clear from the following examples:

• The humanitarian assistance of 4.6 million adult survival kits is comparable with the population of three southern Ukrainian regions: Odessa, Nikolayev and Kherson oblasts.
• Half a million people receiving groceries from the Center monthly is comparable with the number of residents in Nikolayev or four cities in Ukraine’s west – Ivano-Frankovsk, Uzhgorod, Kamenets-Podolsky and Mukachevo.
• The 810,000 km route travelled by trucks as part of humanitarian convoys over the year would be enough to go around the globe 20 times.

In May 2015, the Humanitarian Center launched mobile teams to deliver survival kits to the most remote settlements on the contact line. As a result, groceries were delivered to residents and IDPs in 210 villages and settlements of Donbass where a mobile volunteer team managed to come at least once.

The main focus was on helping children. In 2015, the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center delivered groceries to kids and orphans and provided targeted assistance, in particular for surgeries. Injured children received the required medical assistance and children with serious medical conditions were supplied with medication within the Medicines to Children programme.

Plans for 2016

In 2016, the Humanitarian Center will continue delivering survival kits to both children and adults living in Donbass and provide targeted assistance. Psychologists who completed the Trauma of War training at the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center will be able to take advance training as well.

The Center is going to launch a new area – rehabilitation of injured children.

Director of the Humanitarian Center Aleksandr Vishnyakov: “We have information about 163 injured children in our database: 70% of them were injured in Donetsk Oblast and 30% – in Lugansk Oblast. We’ve been providing emergency assistance to help injured children in Donbass and save their lives. In 2016, following the decision of Rinat Akhmetov, the Humanitarian Center has announced the launch of a new programme, Rehabilitation of Injured Children. We are ready to help the injured children come back to a full and normal life. To this end, we will ensure their rehabilitation in special centres as well as provide technical individual rehabilitation facilities.”

Also, the Center will continue the Say No to Orphanhood programme and launch a new area, Counselling, as part of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s work. Counselling seeks to prepare an orphan to live independently. In March, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation will provide more detailed information about the project.

“I want to express our thanks to the founder of the Humanitarian Center Rinat Akhmetov. The whole team of the Foundation is thankful to him that we can be a part of this big assistance project,” said Aleksandr Vishnyakov.