The main efforts of the Ukrainian Veterans’ Foundation since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion will be directed at projects of assistance to the families of veterans, their psychological and financial support.
This was announced on Monday, April 4, by the executive director of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation, Natalia Kalmykova, during a live broadcast on the “Espresso” TV channel.
As the executive director of the UVF recalled, the Foundation was registered on February 2, 2022, and at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, three people worked in the institution.
“We currently have more than 23 employees. We are reformatting the strategic plan that was (prescribed) for a conditionally peaceful time, because the war continued anyway. We are now planning to launch projects to support families of veterans. We are talking about those families where the husband, father, wife or mother returned to the front. At the same time, families were forced to move from Kyiv, Chernihiv, or Kharkiv regions, and in a new place they needed to somehow start living, earning, and providing for themselves. Actually, this is where our main efforts will be directed,” Nataliya Kalmykova said.
In addition, the Ukrainian Veterans’ Foundation is currently waiting for the adjustment of the order according to which the Ukrainian Veterans’ Foundation will provide financial support to self-employed persons from among the families of veterans and veterans themselves. It is about grants for conducting business activities. As an example: reregistration of Individual Entrepreneur from the region where hostilities continue, in the western regions.
The UVF team also completed the preparation of the “hotline”.
“This will be a psychological decompression line… The idea is for people to turn to us and receive first (psychological) aid in an acute situation. Then we will direct them to the appropriate structures under the Ministry of Veterans Affairs for further, longer psychological support,” Nataliya Kalmykova said live.
The executive director emphasised that the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation faced different challenges than those before the Russian full-scale invasion.
“Currently, the number of families of veterans has increased, as more people have gone to the front; volunteers of territorial communities will be recognised as participants in hostilities. That is, the number of veterans from the target audience with whom we work has increased in a geometric progression”, Nataliya Kalmykova emphasises.
Also, the executive director of the UVF called for proactive communication with the international community regarding crimes committed by russians on the territory of Ukraine.
“We have to work against prejudice, showing the world the terrible destruction and torture inflicted by the russians on the territories they have reached. A proactive story is very important: the more aggressively and proactively we will show the crimes of the russians and at the same time show the values with which our people defend their Motherland, the more successful we will be,” added the executive director of the UVF.
