Representatives of the local Ukrainian Red Cross branch recently distributed among refugees 1,200 certificates for 200 hryvnias, which can be used at a food supermarket. In addition, the Red Cross volunteers regularly issue refugees with clothing, toiletries, toys and more. Most recipients of the assistance are women with children and retirees.
Usually, the Red Cross receives donations from ordinary citizens and businesspeople. Deputy head of Mariupol city branch of Red Cross Society of Ukraine Iryna Zarubina said: “We are now providing them with a bucket of potatoes per family. Previously, the assistance included bread, pastries and grapes – we distribute whatever people donate to us. Now that the locals started donating winter clothing, we distribute it as well. The refugees’ direst shortage is of everything having to do with children: children’s clothing and food, diapers and other hygiene products. We have placed three billboards in Mariupol listing what the refugees need.”
Red Cross workers are planning to issue money certificates in the future as well, with their quantity depending on the flow of refugees. “Since the shooting reached Mariupol, less people flee here. Still, there are those who say that they will remain in the city in any case; these are, in general, families with young children,” Zarubina noted.
Yelyzaveta Levchenko is among those queuing in line to get the Red Cross’s assistance. She left Luhansk two months ago with her husband and three children. “My cousin lives in Mariupol and she has sheltered us. It is our second money certificate, as I was issued one last month too. Besides, my middle child got a tricycle from the Red Cross, while the little one got a winter overalls. Various charities provide food assistance as well. I think people who helped others in peacetime are helping out now as well. When living in Luhansk, we donated some items to the orphanage and the Red Cross. We now see where these things go and how happy are their recipients,” Levchenko told us.
The Levchenkos’ plan for now is to stay in Mariupol, even though virtually everything – relatives, apartment and other property – remained in Luhansk. The mother cannot work because her youngest child is just one year old, and her husband has not found a permanent job yet, earning some money by doing odd jobs as loader and driver. However, the refugee says that the main difficulty is not physical, but moral. Levchenko said: “Here in Mariupol, attitude towards refugees is relatively healthy, but people from Luhansk meet with outright hostility all over Ukraine. We are being treated as outcasts and blamed for what is happening in Luhansk, even though we, I mean our family and friends, did not participate in the referendum and have always said that Luhansk is a Ukrainian city, talked about the situation in the region to our European friends. I want to convey to the whole Ukraine: Do not treat refugees as outcasts, our life is hard enough without it.”
