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BULLETIN № 48
National Committee of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (NC URCS)
November 2018

On August 15th, the President of the URCS, Ivan Usichenko, who headed the Society since 1986, left the post for health reasons. The Board of the URCS has now elected Mr Usichenko as the Honorary President of the URCS for an indefinite term. Professor Mykola Polishchuk, current Vice-President of the URCS, former Minister of Health of Ukraine (2005) and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, took up the post of Acting President of the URCS, according to the Statute of the URCS.
Humanitarian aid
Local URCS branches continue to provide support to vulnerable groups of the population. In particular, on the 1st of November, the Kherson regional branch distributed humanitarian aid from the ICRC to beneficiaries. In the Luhansk region, volunteers and employees of the Rubizhne Red Cross branch organized an event tagged "Five Potatoes". Locals and entrepreneurs donated nearly 300 kg of vegetables, 500 items of stationery and 50 toys to the people in need. Low-income residents in the Dnipro district in Kyiv city were served hot meals to provide relief in the cold weather. In the Donetsk region, humanitarian aid was provided to the vulnerable population of Volnovakha city. The Ivano-Frankivsk regional branch provided furniture to an assisted living facility. The Transcarpathian Red Cross received 5,000 packets of insulin and 10,000 vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and poliomyelitis from the Hungarian partners of medical institutions in the region.
Emergency response teams
The emergency response teams (ERTs) of the URCS are regularly on duty during mass events throughout the country and are able to provide first aid and psychosocial support, evacuate the population affected by the emergency, organize camps for the temporary accommodation of the affected population and provide food items for them. The volunteers provided first aid treatment in Mykolaiv city during a half-marathon with 2,000 participants. In Borispol city (Kyiv region), volunteers were on duty at rhythmic gymnastics competitions. In Kherson, the Red Cross provided assistance to participants in a karate tournament. ERTs in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions conducted a joint field training in Lugansk. In Kyiv, the ERT of the National Committee of URCS took part in a large-scale rescue services exercises. In order to respond effectively in the case of an emergency, the URCS initiated a fundraising campaign to strengthen ERTs’ capacity (http://redcross.org.ua/donate/).
First Aid Training courses
Thanks to the instructors of URCS, more and more people are learning the skills of first aid. The first aid courses have been attended by drivers of public transport in Rivne, teachers in Dnipro, and police in Kharkiv city. In Donetsk city, a team from the Mirnohrad Rehabilitation Center for children with disabilities took part in similar training. In Poltava city, volunteers provided first aid training to beneficiaries of the centre for social rehabilitation of children with disabilities. The first aid master class in Kyiv was attended by employees of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and, in the middle of Kherson, a master class was held on the streets for the public.
Psychosocial support
Events on psychosocial support for vulnerable groups of the population are on-going. In the Donetsk region, the children of Mirnohrad visited the play "Bremen Musicians". Volunteers from the Luhansk region visited the patients of the tuberculosis sanatorium and brought gifts to them. In Kharkiv region, children of Krasnograd city learned how to cook burgers. In the Dnipropetrovs'k region, the Kryvy Rih branch held a small workshop for children on how to make sweet bouquets. In Poltava city, people from vulnerable groups of the population participated in a master class on making wreaths. Some elderly people in Odessa city have learned how to make decorative flowers.
HIV prevention
On the occasion of the European Week for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing, the Zaporizhzhya regional branch joined the #RedCrossHIVtest international flashmob. Participants of the flashmob posted selfies with test results in social networks. For over a year, the Red Cross team in the Zaporizhia region has been implementing an HIV prevention and rapid testing project among the general population to re-enforce community awareness on HIV risk-related behaviour. Over this period, the Red Cross team conducted over 1000 HIV awareness sessions reaching over 16,000 people in urban and rural areas. Over 1000 HIV rapid tests have been carried out among the population. In order to assess the project's effectiveness, a ‘lessons learnt’ meeting was conducted in Zaporizhia city with the participation of French Red Cross experts. The outcome underlined that the intervention projects among the general population (both in urban as well as in rural areas) are an effective tool to decrease HIV related stigma which is still a barrier to successfully overcoming the worldwide HIV epidemic.
Cooperation with charity organizations
On the 29th of November at the National Committee of URCS the Acting President of URCS professor Mykola Polishchuk and the President of the public organization "Epicenter for Children" Yaroslav Nestorovich signed a Memorandum for cooperation between the two organizations, designed to be in force for three years. The URCS has been collaborating with "Epicenter for Children" NGO for more than 6 months. Recently, the URCS delivered about 1.2 thousand units of clothing, donated to the Red Cross by Waikiki company, to the pupils from the vulnerable categories of Ternopil Social-Sport School of Real Madrid Foundation, which is under the tutelage of "Epicenter for Children" NGO. Volunteers of the Ternopil region branch of URCS also train and entertain the pupils, work as educators and mentors, and assist social workers in the school.
Restoring family links
On the 15th of November, an informative event "Don't get lost" organized for preschool children took place in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region). The Little listeners learnt about the work of the Red Cross, the Tracing Service and the Global Network for the restoring family links. In an accessible form, the children learnt how not to get lost and advice on what to do if they ever did get lost. All the participants listened attentively, actively answered questions and solved difficult gaming situations.
Assistance of partner national societies
The Czech Red Cross donated 3 Ford minibuses to the URCS. The cars, which are recognized as humanitarian cargo by the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, are currently in customs control. At the end of November, the National Committee of URCS received the second consignment of humanitarian goods from the German Red Cross. The aid included more than 10,000 emergency kits for infants, containing diapers, cotton towels and baby scissors.
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