Belarusian volunteers in Kharkiv: the number of those who come for help for the first time gradually decreases
Volunteers of “Belarusian Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine” continue working in Kharkive: July 13 was the first day for the new shift of Belarusians at Station “Kharkiv”.
Anastasiya and Anisiya handed out clothes, Vital and Siarhei helped to carry things. "Sometimes there come mothers with children come, not hoping that there will be so much humanitarian aid. Of course, sometimes it is quite hard for them to carry the envelopes and the child several blocks to the stop of public transport. In this case, our men offer their help," they say.
Volunteers of “Belarusian Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine” continue working in Kharkive: July 13 was the first day for the new shift of Belarusians at Station “Kharkiv”. Anastasiya and Anisiya handed out clothes, Vital and Siarhei helped to carry things. “Sometimes there come mothers with children come, not hoping that there will be so much humanitarian aid. Of course, sometimes it is quite hard for them to carry the envelopes and the child several blocks to the stop of public transport. In this case, our men offer their help,” they say. There are rare cases when there are no visitors in the hall. The colleagues say there weren't such cases last week: 282 families appealed for help (760 people). 111 families (212 people) came to Station “Kharkiv” for the first time. “Is it more than usual?”, we asked the volunteers of Station “Kharkiv”. “No, starting from February, the number of those who appeals for aid for the first time gradually decreases. Of course, it depends on the escalation of the hostilities – then the flow increases. We register the internally displaced persons and then they periodically come for help. Typically, the number of visitors is keeping at the same level. The exception are the days when we receive large loads of humanitarian aid, such as we got from the UN in May. We send the people 1,5 thousand SMS messages to inform them about it. In such cases we have to work hard.
The mission's diary has already told about the fates of the IDPs from the ATO zone. However, in their work the volunteers sometimes face with completely different people: those who come to the station not for for getting or rendering aid. The greed of these people is over the edge. According to
the volunteers, everyday the station gets 1-3 such visitors.
We were most outraged at the incident we witnessed personally: a woman, wearing much golden jewelry, choosing the tenth item of clothing for herself, said somebody on the phone: “Come here, they give away clothes for free! Yes, they are good. Take a taxi!” Seeing a new volunteer they run to him or her, hoping to get something. They take the things they don't need (the volunteers say there were cases when the sold the clothes), waste the time and nerves of the volunteers. Often they speak threats, obscenities, insults and even curses instead of gratitude... Of course, there are completely different examples. For instance, once we saw a young mother with a child. They were choosing clothes. They already had clothes for a baby, a blouse for the woman and a dress for the girl. Having noticed another dress, the daughter asked to take it took, but the mother answered: “Dear, you need to choose just one of the two dresses, as another girl may need a dress more than you do.”
More information about the work of the Belarusian volunteers can be found at section "Human Rights Humanitarian Mission in Ukraine" on our website or at the Facebook account of the mission.
