On July 15, Rinat Akhmetov Foundation turns 15 years. From the very first days of its work, the Foundation has implemented and continues to implement projects at the national level. First of all, they are aimed at helping and rescuing people, as well as fighting social problems. Today, the Fund’s assets include projects and programs in the field of humanitarian aid, medicine, culture and social development, overcoming orphanhood and promoting family forms of education.
The work of one of the most ambitious programs of the Foundation – the Humanitarian Center – went down in history. In addition, the experience of assistance in an armed conflict still has no analogues in Ukraine – the lives of more than a million people in the east of the country have been saved. A humanitarian catastrophe in Donbas averted. All this thanks to one person, his desire to give the good and help.
– A million lives saved are not just a figure, they are human destinies. It is a struggle for every person every day, every hour, every minute. This is the warmth of the heart, which the volunteers warmed those who had lost hope. These are the surviving children, women and the elderly. This is the greatest value! – this is how Rinat Akhmetov himself speaks about the work of the Fund.
All projects and programs of the Foundation are unique in their own way. We bring to your attention the most ambitious areas of activity, which are successfully and radically changing life in the country.
“Fight against COVID-19 in Ukraine”
The national-scale project started almost from the very first days of the coronavirus epidemic. To counter the threat as effectively as possible and improve the level of medicine, Rinat Akhmetov was the first to come to the aid of the country back in February. He pooled the resources of the charitable foundation, FC Shakhtar and SCM businesses and allocated 300 million UAH to fight the infection. They are aimed at addressing the country’s most important medical needs, including artificial lung ventilation ALV. Therefore, the Foundation purchased and donates 200 modern ventilators to supporting hospitals.
– The project “Combating COVID-19 in Ukraine” became part of the program of the Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives Foundation. ALV were sought all over the world. Doctors themselves admit that today it is almost impossible to buy high-quality ventilators, since they are needed in every country in the world. It was a difficult task, but Rinat Akhmetov Foundation coped with it. 200 ALV is another large-scale project of the Fund, designed to increase the level of emergency care in Ukraine. More than 100 devices have already been delivered to the country. This is the largest batch of medical equipment that has crossed the border since the beginning of quarantine, says Natalya Yemchenko, a member of the Fund’s Supervisory Board.
The Fund’s contribution to the provision of state hospitals with ventilators was highly appreciated by the President of the Association of Anesthesiologists of Ukraine Sergey Dubrov.
– After loosening up of quarantine measures, we note an increase in the number of new people infected with coronavirus. According to optimistic scenarios, more than half of the country’s population will be sick with it. We need each bed in the intensive care unit to have a ventilator, – Sergey Dubrov explained.
“200 ambulances for Ukraine”
Another large-scale project to support Ukrainian healthcare within the framework of the Rinat Akhmetov – Saving Lives program was the 200 Ambulance for Ukraine project. Thanks to him, in record-breaking six months, state medical institutions in all regions received 200 special ambulances with the most modern equipment capable of overcoming difficult conditions. Among the donated ambulances there are 114 resuscitation on wheels, 22 neonatal care vehicles with artificial lung ventilation devices for newborns and 64 ambulances based on the Toyota Land Cruiser SUV.
The 200 Ambulance for Ukraine project has changed the quality of emergency and primary health care in the country. Now doctors in all areas come to patients faster and help more effectively. In addition, today many of these ambulances are involved in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.
“Rinat Akhmetov – For Children”
Helping children is always a priority for Rinat Akhmetov. Therefore, on his initiative, the Foundation has created more than 20 programs and projects aimed at supporting the youngest residents of Ukraine.
Within the framework of the project “Rinat Akhmetov – For Children. Healthy Heart” children undergo corrective surgery to close a heart defect with a special implant – an occluder in the country’s leading cardio clinics .
The project “Rinat Akhmetov – For Children. Now I Can Hear” helps babies with hearing problems get high-sensitivity hearing aids. Thanks to these devices, for the first time, they can hear the sounds of the world around them, the voices of their parents, learn and develop along with their age-mates.
In 2015, it became clear that children living side by side with the armed hostilities needed psychological rehabilitation. Experienced tremendous stress, shocks, horrors could not but leave a trace in their souls. Psychologists of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation sounded the alarm: if children are not freed from the shackles of emotions, in the future all this will come back to haunt in the form of neuroses and psychosomatic diseases. This is how the unique project “Rinat Akhmetov – For Children. Peaceful summer” appeared. Since 2015, boys and girls have been traveling on a ticket from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation to health centers and sanatoriums in the country with their fears and injuries, and after just two weeks, they return home full of confidence in themselves and their future. These are the results of art therapy and trainings included in the stay program, as well as the psychological rehabilitation of children.
In addition, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is the only charitable foundation in Ukraine that systematically and on a large scale helps the injured children of Donbass. Within the framework of the project “Rinat Akhmetov – For Children. Rehabilitation of Wounded Children” seriously wounded children underwent physical rehabilitation in the best sanatoriums of Ukraine.
“Rinat Akhmetov – For Children. Say No to Orphanhood!”
The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation also supports children from boarding schools who are deprived of parental care and warmth. For this, the program and the portal “Rinat Akhmetov for Children. Say No to Orphanhood! » which main task is to help children find happiness in the family. Over the years, the program and the portal have become a leader in national adoption and have shown that adoptive parenting is not an easy but feasible step. Trainer and psychologist Lyubov Loriashvili has been working with the Foundation for over 10 years. However, the memories of the first meeting still do not fade in memory:
– Then in society, there was still no thought that adopting a child was normal. On the contrary, it was taboo. A site that has a photo in good quality, a region, something is written about the child, and eventually a video … It was a revolution! At first, even I, a specialist, “was sitting” on the program’s website, looked at it and admired it. It was a huge difference between what I saw in the personal affairs of the children. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation removed the taboo and began to show these children, and show them very tactfully and carefully so as not to harm. It sounded very powerful.
Thanks to the portal and the program, almost 10,000 children were adopted or taken into care. If we shift this figure to days, then it turns out that for 11 years every day at least two children, deprived of parental warmth, found and continue to find their families.
In addition, the Foundation has popularized such a form of upbringing as family-type children’s homes. With his support, 41 family type children’s home were created in Ukraine.
15 YEARS OF THE RINAT AKHMETOV FOUNDATION IN FIGURES
Rinat Akhmetov help saved more than 1,000,000 lives
Millions of people throughout Ukraine received Rinat Akhmetov help
99.7% of Donbass residents and 95.1% of the Ukrainian population know about the work of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. And these figures tell of the all-Ukrainian recognition of the scale of the Fund’s work
84% of Donbass residents and 66% of the population of Ukraine believe that civilians in Donetsk and Luhansk regions would not have survived without humanitarian assistance from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation
Thanks to the portal ” Say No to Orphanhood!” nearly 10,000 orphans found loving parents. Program and portal ” Say No to Orphanhood!” – leaders of national adoption
If each of the children, whom the Foundation helped to find a family, says the word “thank you” once, it will sound for two and a half hours!