About 120 families from Ukraine received Red Cross vouchers in the Vitebsk region this year

"Since 2014, that is, from the very beginning of the influx of displaced persons from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to Belarus, the Red Cross has begun to provide them with various assistance: consultations and calls to relatives, collection of clothes and other items from the population, humanitarian kits, and so on. At the same time, the distribution of vouchers for the purchase of food products and hygiene items was launched. In March of this year, a four-month stage of the "2017 ICRC" project began. The International Committee has transferred Br48 thousand to the Vitebsk region. And from these funds, 116 families of displaced persons in our region have already received assistance: some once, that is, for one month out of four, some for several. Since the amount is not so large, we assess the situation of each applicant so that those who cannot do without it receive such financial support," the organization explained.

Vouchers worth Br100 each are issued to a target category of particularly needy individuals. These include single-parent families with children with low incomes, large families, pregnant and nursing mothers (there are particularly many of them in the Vitebsk region, by the way), elderly people (men over 65, women over 58) without income or with low pensions, children without parental care, and orphans up to 18 years of age. Moreover, if a family has 3-4 people, 2 vouchers are issued; if 5 or more, 3 vouchers. They can be redeemed in the stores of the "Belkoopsoyuz" chain.

"We have divided the funds into six zones, and distribution is carried out in the cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, Polotsk, Lepel, Rossony, Dokshitsy. At the same time, vouchers are issued in the form of 5 papers worth Br20 each for the convenience of calculations. Now we have a busy period - a lot of applicants are coming. But we expect that this is not the only stage of voucher distribution this year. Assistance to displaced persons from Ukraine will continue to be provided," the regional organization of the Belarusian Red Cross Society concluded.

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.