Vitebsk Red Cross began issuing vouchers for food and hygiene products to Ukrainian migrants

The Vitebsk regional organization of the Belarusian Red Cross Society has started issuing vouchers for the purchase of food products and hygiene items to forced migrants from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, a BELTA correspondent reports. BELTA.

At the beginning of 2015, the Secretariat of the BRCS prepared vouchers to provide humanitarian assistance to needy Ukrainian migrants using funds provided to Belarus by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

In the Vitebsk region, migrants who found shelter in the Shumilino district were the first to have the opportunity to purchase food and hygiene products. And today, migrants from the Beshenkovichi district are shopping using Red Cross vouchers. The regional structure of the BRCS organizes their group arrival in Vitebsk, where with the help of volunteers they can make the necessary purchases for the voucher amount. "The cost of one voucher is Br500 thousand for food products and Br100 thousand for hygiene items. We called all retail outlets, held a tender for the right to issue these vouchers. As a result, the supermarket 'Euroopt' in the center of Vitebsk won. Who is eligible for vouchers? These are the most vulnerable categories: large and single-parent families, families with disabled children, nursing mothers, and pensioners who have not yet been able to arrange their pensions in Belarus. Red Cross representatives provide them with social support. This is painstaking work because people are not yet oriented to Belarusian prices, they want to buy as much food as possible and choose the cheapest options, worrying about the future. Of course, citizens who have just arrived in the region with the new wave of migration will also be involved in this humanitarian aid," explained the chairman of the regional organization of the BRCS, Galina Zhelanova.

The first volumes of humanitarian aid under the voucher system in the Vitebsk region are intended for just over 100 people, with a total amount of about Br62 million. Subsequently, 240 vouchers for the purchase of clothing and footwear will be issued. Here, as emphasized by Galina Zhelanova, the focus will be on providing warm clothing for children. It is expected that following the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation will also join in providing financial assistance.

The collection of funds from the public to the charitable account opened in the region also continues. Over several months of 2014, more than Br30 million was received, which was used to purchase humanitarian kits for new settlers who had just arrived in the Vitebsk region from the affected regions of the neighboring country.

Ekaterina Knyazeva