Launches a fundraising campaign to help families without resources in the Chernobyl area
The “tense calm” with which the Chernobyl Elkartea Association experienced the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned into alarm. “They are shooting at civilians in the villages,” says Lide Álvarez, a volunteer for the association with a trembling voice. “Every day that passes, things are uglier,” she says. At the moment, the children in the foster program “are fine”, but “soon, if this situation continues, they will need help”. For this reason, from the Chernobyl Elkartea Association they have launched a fundraising campaign that they will allocate “entirely to the families”.
Fundraising for children without resources in Chernobyl
The presence of Russian troops has increased “notably” in the last hours in the villages of the Chernobyl area. “There are bombs and shots continuously. They are destroying villages and infrastructure. Just yesterday they told us that there were about 3 kilometers of Russian tanks stopped in the area, waiting, they believe, to receive the order to go to Kiev, ”says Lide. From the association they have verified an increase in violence. “They have started burning garages, houses… and they are also shooting at civil society. We received a notice that the mother of a kid from the program had been shot, but fortunately they did not hit him and he is fine. And from other villages we have also been informed that they are shooting at civilians.”
The war advances and the problems worsen. “It is increasingly difficult for us to communicate with our families, in fact, some areas are cut off,” explains Lide. In one of these villages resides Katya, the girl who for eight years has welcomed her home every summer. For a day and medi have not been able to communicate directly with her. “Yesterday we got a message from her aunt in Kiev in which she tells us that they are alive and safe,” she says. The news that comes from other families is not so good. «The children are directly fine, but there are parents who have been called up. We also know that the 19 and 21-year-old cousins of one of our foster children were recruited and died on the front lines on the first day”, she narrates.
The wounds of the war are already evident in Chernobyl and its people. They are humble families, without resources, who live from day to day and from self-sufficiency. “At the moment they still have food, but we don’t know until when,” they explain from the association. The destruction in some areas is total. Among them, Ivankiv, the county seat and where the families of the villages went to the doctor, pharmacy or to make ‘big purchases’.
Faced with this tragic situation, the Chernobyl Elkartea Association has launched a fundraising campaign “with the aim of having resources to allocate to what families need.” “They are people who have no resources, who cannot get out of there and whose situation, which is already critical, is going to get worse. The needs are going to arrive and we want to have the resources to respond”, they explain from the association. They want to underline that all the money collected will go “entirely” to the needy families of Chernobyl and call for the solidarity of Gipuzkoa to help those affected by the war.
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