Recently being a volunteer became a trend. Besides large volunteer organizations, a big amount of small centers of assistance and local separate activists that often intervene in cooperation with volunteer organizations of Ukraine and near-aboard countries appeared in the regions. However, how complete does the assistance get to migrants through the “second hands”? Journalist of the media Pod Pricelom tried to find out that.
Akhmetov’s every little bit helps
Humanitarian aid of Rinat Akhmeov remains the most significant aid for the civil population in Donbass now. In any case, that’s what IDPs themselves assert: to the question who helps them, people always name the charity foundation of Rinat Akhmetov “Aid Help” the first, local volunteers and small organizations from all Ukraine are on the send place, international organizations – on the third one. The very few recall of any aid from representatives of the “DNR” and the “LNR”.
Unfortunately, even when sending food packages to liberated territories, foundations cannot always supervise their dispensation. IDPs themselves say that they received, for example, the complete package of humanitarian aid from Rinat Akhmetov only once – already in March. Thus, a migrant from Donetsk Irina arrived together with her underage son in Svyatogorsk in the end of July, 2014. She receives humanitarian aid from Akhmetov every month, but, according to Ira, it is always different and very small.
“I always received aid only in Akkmetov packages, but each time it lacked something. In February I received 3kg of macaroni, 1 can of condensed milk, 1 can of corn, 1 liter of sunflower oil, wheat and peeled barley, 5 cans of spiced sprats, and a package of cookies. However, there was no flour, nor sugar. There was no flour in December either. There was no sunflower oil in another package. However, for example, there was only a kilo of millet, peeled and pearl barley in the October’s aid packages,” Irina says.
According to the office of the charity foundation “Aid Help”, the food package for an adult person consists of sugar (1gk), flour (2kg), sunflower oil (0.8kg), peeled barley (1 kg), wheat groats (1kg), oat-flakes (1 kg), macaroni (2.96 kg), tinned meat (1.05 kg), canned fish (sprats in tomato sauce, 0.48 kg), cookies or pastries (0.36 kg) and condensed milk (0.37 kg).
At the same time, the press-service of the office notes that combination of the humanitarian aid could vary a little bit:
Warming center of IDPs in Slavyansk
“Please note, combination of a package isn’t permanent and can vary in accordance with procurements and regions. Thus, in the absence of tinned meat it is substituted by canned fish, corn could be replaced by cookies or pastries, groats could also vary. At the same time, decision of replacement was made on the level of the central office and regions were informed about the confirmed combination of the package.”
Irina also told us that groats were put in simple t-shirt bags, but not prepackaged. We asked employees of the foundation about that and a volunteer of the Akhmetov’s office Maxim Mrovinskiy told us that they never send humanitarian aid like this. “I have been working in the office exactly since October, but it never was so that groats were not prepackaged. Moreover, there is “not for sale” sticker on each package of the prepackaged product to avoid any kind of speculation. Also, humanitarian aid always consisted of groats, sunflower oil, sugar and flour. These products have never been excluded from the combination.”
After this information a question arose towards local volunteers that the Alhmetov’s office cooperates with. According to the foundation and also reports of different mass media, it is seen that a local foundation “Slavic Heart” headed by Natalya Kirkach deals with dispensation of the humanitarian aid in Svyatogorsk. At her disposal there are two points in the city, where the humanitarian aid is given away: in the local vegetable warehouse and in the cafe “Piramida”.
According to Natlya Kirkach, her organization deals with admittance and distribution of the humanitarian aid not only from the “Aid Help” foundation but also from other volunteers, Ukrainian and foreign organizations.
However, Natalya doesn’t acknowledge the fact of dispensation of incomplete packages, saying that all the aid has been always given away prepackaged and in the form as it had been sent by the office.
“All of you are lying and now I can prove why. You don’t have any concrete facts, you don’t name any names. Tell me, who came to you to complain? I know, it’s probably that ambitious lady…” Natalya takes a moment to think. “We always issue the aid completely the way it arrives to the foundation. You can come and check.”
However, every month IDPs note the fact that trucks with the humanitarian aid always arrives two-three days prior to the beginning of its distribution. People wonder: “Why does cargo stay in storage for so long?”
Camera, action…
Migrants say that the most awkward case with dispensation of the humanitarian aid happened last summer, when cargo from the Akhmetov’s foundation had arrived for the first time. A couple of thousand people and many TV journalists gathered then. A trucked pulled over and they started to give the foodstuff. However, journalist left in 20 minutes and together with them the truck with food stopped dispensation and also left.
“Other stories also happen,” Irina says. “For example, recently, on Wednesday and on Thursday I met a woman wearing down jacket, who came for the aid, but on Sunday I saw her already wearing a fur coat and she was loading the aid in a minibus. But what do they do with it, I don’t know…”
Ours to ours and for ours
In a resort “Holly Mountains”, where there is one of the resettlement centers is located now, a big tendency of people for volunteering is observed. Local population says that the chief doctor of the resort Lyubov Zalayeva united around 10 “friendly” volunteers around herself. It’s worth mentioning that Lyubov Zalaeva herself refused to talk to us but let us to come in the resort and sent her clinical nurse-manager to meet us.
The IDPs say they witness cases of dishonesty of the chief doctor.
“A couple of days ago a family from Debaltseve came to us, they wanted to settle here, but the chief doctor said that there were no more places left,” a young mother, who is also from Debaltseve, says. “But only how could be that there are no free places, if we can see ourselves that there are many empty rooms! They just wait for someone to put a one hundred hryvya bill atop, and then they will find rooms right away.”
Also settlers note facts of stealing of foodstuff and medication by local volunteers.
The Bermuda storage
Eating house of IDPs in Slavyansk
The volunteering group from Kiev “Wings of Generosity and Care” is very welcomed in storage of the local authorities of Kurakhovo. The group is supposed to leave rather costly foodstuff packages for starving residents of Mar’inka and Krasnogorovka that are promised to be delivered by the military from the Civil-Military Co-operation CIMIC.
A handler actively participates in unloading of the products and even suggests activists to give a couple of dozens of children’s water and a couple nets of potatoes. The volunteers agree but the director of the group doesn’t show any sign of joy. Later, the director of “Wings of Generosity of Care” Maya Mihaylyuk explained what confused her about cooperation with the handler:
“In Kramatorsk and Svyatogorsk we dealt with volunteers we trusted. In both places religious people dealt with refugees. As for the storage in Kurakhovo, we had some questions. We were not allowed to come to Maryanka because of shellfire, the military offered to leave the products in the storage (later they delivered them themselves). When we were unloading, we were surprised that the storage was full of different foodstuffs, blankets etc., whereas all of this is extremely wanted in refugees camps in the very same Kukharovo and we deliver these things from Kiev. The storages belong to the local authorities.”
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Lately, many volunteers try not to work through any kind of mediators, but deliver the aid right in hands of the IDPs. It helps to secure cargo from cheaters and deliver more humanitarian aid as indented. However, if there are still some mediators, it is better for both foundations themselves and migrants, who can address to the main office and specify whether a couple dozens of kilos of groats were lost during the interlarding from package to package in a storage or something else, to try to supervise the dispensation. Providing the scale of activities, the “Aid Help” foundation could create a hotline to avoid such situations in the future.
