BULLETIN № 49
National Committee of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (NC URCS)
December 2018

Social projects award
On the 8th of December, the final stage of the Social Project Awards took place in Odessa city, where the best 100 social projects in Ukraine were acknowledged. The TOP-100 projects included the mobile health units of URCS that operate in the East of Ukraine and the program of psychosocial support for the population affected by the armed conflict. At the competition stage, 410 social projects and ideas were considered. The Top 100 projects were identified through online voting.

Emergency response
On the 14th of December in Fastiv city (Kyiv region), there was a domestic gas explosion on the third floor of a five-storey residential building, resulting in the destruction of a part of the house. Emergency Response Team Volunteers of the National Committee of URCS responded to the explosion. Volunteers also set up a heating point and handed out sandwiches, snacks and hot tea to the responders.

Humanitarian Aid
The New Year holidays are a time for fun, gifts and festive mood. Red Cross volunteers and staff decided to share the good cheer to children in vulnerable groups. In Transcarpathia, 8 000 of such children received gifts from the Austrian partners of URCS. Volunteers from Rivne city distributed food parcels to families with children with disabilities. In Kyiv city and in the Donetsk region, vulnerable families received hygiene kits provided by the German Red Cross. Similar kits for babies were donated to the maternity hospital in Chernivtsi city. On the occasion of the International Day of People with Disabilities, the Red Cross of Luhansk region organized a charity dinner.

First Aid Trainings
Thanks to the FA instructors of URCS, more and more people are mastering the skills of first aid. In particular, employees of the State Service of Marine and River Transport attended a FA master-class in Kyiv. Similar classes were held for schoolchildren in Zaporizhzhya and students in Bila Tserkva city. Also, regular first aid training courses are being held. In the Luhansk region, a 12-hour course was carried out for medical students, and in the Donetsk region, the training was provided to employees of the public enterprise "Donbass Water". In the Kyiv region, the staff of Boryspil airport also mastered first aid skills. By the way, at the end of December, one of the flight workers that participated in the training saved a woman who was in a state of clinical death.

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.

Capacity building in response to the emergencies
On the 19th – 20th of December, a workshop tagged "Volunteer Management and Its Role in Emergency Response" was held in Kyiv. It was conducted within the project "Promoting the role of volunteers and the population in Civil Protection (ProVoice)". The purpose of the event was to improve the training concepts in volunteer management, including volunteer management during emergencies. The event was attended by URCS volunteers and staff, representatives of partner organizations (Volunteer Firefighters, Motochelp), and the Danish Red Cross. Future training courses will be aimed at volunteer leaders in order to provide the basic tools and knowledge necessary for managing volunteers in emergency response situations. After giving presentations on the practical experience of URCS and partners in reacting to emergencies, the participants created a draft agenda for the training course.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL)
On 7th – 8th of December, a training course for teachers and methodologists took place within the framework of the renewal of IHL Course for secondary schools. The event was attended by members of the working group of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on the development of teaching and methodological support for the IHL course. Also, the representative of the URCS National Committee participated in the event. During the training, the program of the course and the subsequent steps of its implementation were presented. The trainers described the fundamentals of international humanitarian law and the key topics of the manual, as well as a number of practical exercises that would help students to learn the material better.

Mine risk education
URCS, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is implementing a project to reduce the effects of weapon contamination and explosive remnants of war for the fourth year, the main task of which is to increase awareness of inhabitants of settlements in the conflict zone in the east of Ukraine. In educational institutions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions regular informational sessions are being held. In particular, on the 10th of December in Luhansk region representatives of URCS conducted an open lesson on "How to protect yourself from explosive objects".

Banks of clothing
With the cold weather, more and more people in need come to the clothes-banks that operate in local branches of URCS. For example, in Dnipropetrovsk region, the staff of Kryvyi Rih district branch delivered clothes to the poor residents of the remote village of Geikivka. In Podil district (Kyiv city), the needy receive clothes every Monday. People can donate their own belongings, after verifying the address of the nearest regional branch clothes-bank to them.