The International Renaissance Foundation presented Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program

July 13, 2009, a press conference, devoted to presentation of the new Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program initiated by the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) in Ukraine, took place at UNIAN news agency.

The main goal of the Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program is to assist people, cultural and public institutions, which have suffered the most from the financial and economic crisis. The Program is focused on supporting projects that will assist people to organize their own activity under the crisis conditions and unfavorable concatenation of circumstances.

It has become common to assert that a crisis is not just a decline and threat, but rather a discovery of new opportunities. Realizing these challenges of the crisis, the Open Society Institute (ІВС, New York — Budapest), whose founder is George Soros, initiated the Emergency Program, focused on overcoming the crisis. Additional 100 million USD for 20 countries of the Eastern and Central Europe were provided for the Program. George Soros and Open Society Institute launched a financial support line of more than 20 million US dollars to support humanitarian initiatives in Ukraine.

Yevhen Bystrytsky, IRF Executive Director, emphasized that “distribution of these resources will be carried out by the International Renaissance Foundation within the scope of the newly-created Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program, into which the Foundation will involve all interested philanthropists, business and state structures, in order not to just ease the consequences of the crisis, but also to open new prospects for the country. Ukraine can get more than 20 million US dollars only under the condition of providing quality proposals to the Open Society Institute, which have to be approved by the International Board of the Emergency Program.”

To determine priorities of the Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program, the International Renaissance Foundation will discuss the most pressing social problems under the crisis conditions with representatives of leading public organizations of Ukraine, power institutions and business, leaders of all interested charity foundations of Ukraine, and international donors. Financial resources of the Program will be directed on resolving these problems.

The International Renaissance Foundation addresses to all charity and donor organizations, working in Ukraine, with a proposal to create an independent consortium of philanthropists for the purpose of launching a joint support — on partnership basis — for initiatives, directed on overcoming the crisis in the humanitarian sphere.

As the first initiative within the scope of the Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program, the International Renaissance Foundation already announced the first competitions together with the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports (a competition “Health Improvement and Recreation for Children of Preferential Categories”) and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (a competition “Support of Activity of Summer Children’s and School Recreational Institutions”). The deadline for submission of projects for the competitions is July 14, 2009. The combined budget of the competitions is 2 million UAH.

“In Ukraine, there is a real threat of a decrease in care and attention to upbringing of children and teenagers and that concerns the period of summer holidays too. Under such circumstances, by starting the Anti-crisis Program, the International Renaissance Foundation sees opportunities for supporting projects that contribute to provision of organized recreation for uncared children in August. These threatening developments are taking place not only in villages and regions, but in oblast centers as well”, emphasized Ruslan Kraplych, Director of the newly-created Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program of the International Renaissance Foundation.

According to a representative of the Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports, “this year many children from low-income families and economically depressed regions were not able to get vouchers, in order to improve their health and relax during the summer holidays. Currently, this project is especially important since it will provide financial support to summer tent camps, help to provide recreation for uncared children and promote development of youth social organizations that work with children, schoolchildren and unemployed youth.”

According to a representative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, “involvement into participation in the competition of health-improvement camps, affiliated with schools, health-improvement institutions run by boarding schools and boarding schools for children with special needs, is an extremely pressing and important matter. This project will allow to extend health-improving activity of such camps, increase quality of organized forms of children’s recreation, improve sanitary supervision of children’s stay in camps, organize an additional medical examination for them, ensure a proper quality of board and purchases of additional small sports and tourist gear.”

Additional information: Kateryna Smagliy, Manager of the Anti-crisis Humanitarian Program of the International Renaissance Foundation: tel. 461 97 09, smagliy@irf.kiev.ua and Anastasia Grynko, PR Manager of the International Renaissance Foundation, tel. 461 95 00, grynko@irf.kiev.ua.

			Maria Lykhman, PR department tel: +380 (44) 486 24 74 | fax: +380 (44) 486 76 29 email: lykhman@irf.kiev.ua office: Kyiv, Artema Street, 46, Head Office