Shevtsov outlines Belarusian Red Cross plans – equipped crisis centres and new services
The Belarusian Red Cross (BRC) will continue to actively introduce new services and equip complex crisis centres – as stated by the organisation’s Secretary General, Dmitry Shevtsov, at the presidium meeting of the BRC, BelTA reports
The Secretary General noted that in 2023, the BRC’s activities were aimed at implementing the statutory tasks and strategic directions, protecting and improving the vulnerable categories of citizens’ quality of life and mobilising the humanitarian potential of society.
“The past year was eventful. It all started with the earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye. The Belarusian Red Cross took an active part in the assistance, including fundraising, and sent humanitarian aid to these countries with $83.6 thousand transferred to help the victims and humanitarian cargo worth Br100 thousand,” Dmitry Shevtsov emphasised.
The organisation continued to assist Ukrainian citizens in Belarus. Today, the BRC is caring for 7,210 people from this country. About 2,000 of them are children who receive special attention, including medical recovery and psychological assistance.
“It is very important to create comfortable conditions for children so that they can get rid of stress and worries,” the BRC Secretary General added.
“We continue to actively develop services – there are 84 of them in the country, including health centres, social computer labs and many others. We are completing the equipment and preparing to open a crisis centre in Grodno. It will also house a centre for classes with children who have special mental development. Last year, a new multifunctional crisis centre was launched in Mogilev. We are equipping these facilities with services,” Dmitry Shevtsov stated.
The organisation’s material and technical base has significantly improved. Over the past two years, 11 vehicles have been purchased thereby completely solving the transport problem.
“We have also completed the equipment for rapid response teams. These are 17 teams of volunteers who are ready to provide competent and qualified assistance in the area of man-made or natural disasters. They are constantly improving their skills by training with the units of the Ministry for Emergency Situations and other partners,” the Secretary General of the BRC underlined.
Dmitry Shevtsov also touched upon the issue of financing the organisation. According to him, all the funds allocated to the BRC by international partners went directly to providing assistance to foreign citizens and irregular migrants located on the territory of Belarus.
“Our international partners have never allocated funds to Belarus for the development of services. There were some projects, but they have been completed,” the Secretary General noted.
As for the development in 2024, the BRC plans to work in several areas.
“We are talking about increasing the number of volunteers, members of the organisation and conducting outreach work that will attract many new people to our ranks, whose contributions will be used to develop services and projects aimed at helping Belarusian citizens. Taking into account the situation, we see specific ways to develop the organisation. We have plans, we understand where we need to work,” Dmitry Shevtsov concluded.
