Report on church relief efforts in Kursk and Belgorod regions for 10th September

DECR Communication Service, 12/09/2024

Parishes and monasteries of the Tver Diocese continue to collect humanitarian aid for people affected by the hostilities in the Kursk region. Collected over the last week of August and early days of September were 2,700 kg of foodstuffs, baby food, hygiene and cleaning products, bedclothes and basic necessities, reports diaconia.ru.

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Since 16^th August, 17,969 people have appealed for help to the Church Centre for All-Round Social Relief operating in the Trinity Convent in Kursk.

Seeking assistance at the Church Centre on 10^th September were 1,000 people (250 families). They received cleaning products and food packages. Provided upon request were pillows, blankets, bedclothes, mattresses, stationary, 15 tonometers, 3 walking frames, crutches and a cane. Necessary assistance was provided to a woman with limited mobility from Vozy village, Kursk region. Another woman and her disabled mother were relocated from the Lgov district to a temporary accommodation centre in Ponyry district.

Three tons of humanitarian aid were delivered to the Church Centre for All-Round Social Relief, which included bedclothes, pillows, blankets, 600 folding beds from the Synodal Department for Charity and 300 packages of cleaning products from St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki Church in Kursk.

Forty volunteers worked at the centre that day.

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Since 6^th August, 794 people (266 families) from the Kursk region and 21 people (8 families) from the Belgorod region have appealed for help to the Moscow Headquarters for Refugee Assistance operating under the Synodal Department for Charity.

Over that period, the Moscow Headquarters has received 1,594 aid deliveries from churches, monasteries and concerned Muscovites.

On 10^th September, 31 people (7 families) from the Kursk region sought assistance at the Moscow Headquarters. Compared to the day before, the number of help-seeking families slightly decreased. All the people who appealed for help are staying with their relatives and friends. All the families received humanitarian aid (foodstuffs, hygiene and cleaning products, school supplies). Upon request, folding beds, mattresses, pillows, bedclothes, blankets and kitchenware were provided.

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Since 6^th August, 224 people from the Kursk region have appealed for help to the Church Headquarters for Refugee Assistance located in Saints Martha and Mary Convent in Belgorod.

On 10^th September, 92 families sought assistance at the Church Headquarters in Belgorod. Four more families called its hotline. Receiving humanitarian aid (foodstuffs, hygiene products, bedclothes, pillows, blankets, clothes) were 217 people: 185 people from the Belgorod region and border areas, 22 people from the Kharkov region, 7 people from the DPR, the LPR and Ukraine, 3 people from the Kursk region.

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Fourteen volunteers and one staff member of the Synodal Department for Charity have been working in three temporary accommodation centres and one hospital in the Kursk region. In the temporary accommodation centres, volunteers look after the elderly and people with disabilities, feeding and bathing them, taking for walks and doing haircuts. Since 19^th August, thirty volunteers from the Synodal Department for Charity have visited temporary accommodation centres in the Kursk region.

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Priests from various dioceses in Russia visit Kursk hospitals on a regular basis. Since 9^th August, there have already been 5 shifts with 5 priests from 3 dioceses.

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Since 15^th August, volunteers and sisters of mercy from St. Alexis Hospital in Moscow – sixteen people in total – have been working shifts in the Kursk Regional Hospital, nursing the wounded and critically ill patients.

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The Holy Intercession Cathedral and other churches of the Sevastopol Deanery, Simferopol Diocese, have sent 3.5 tons of humanitarian cargo to be distributed among people affected by the hostilities in the Kursk region.