OREANDA-NEWS. PrivatBank has become a partner of a new programme of financial assistance for internally displaced persons who have no regular income, implemented by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. The bank will involve all its branches operating in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in this important social project.

According to the ICRC, today, many displaced people, who are sheltered by locals and organizations on both sides of the frontline, still have no regular sources of income. They are mainly dependent on their hosts’ kindness, as well as local authorities and humanitarian organizations.

"There are several thousand displaced families, many of them with children, living in the east of the country, whose income is below the minimum monthly subsistence level of UAH 1,176 (about USD 54) per person," - says Dragana Rankovic, the ICRC's economic security coordinator in Ukraine. - "Even now these people hardly make ends meet. And it is very likely that they will face even more difficulties during the approaching cold season."

In order to support unemployed displaced persons and their families, the ICRC has launched a program of financial support to be implemented in close cooperation with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. The pilot phase of the program has already started in 16 districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Ukraine. It’s expected to last till the end of the year. The displaced people will be able to receive payments in any PrivatBank branch in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"The most advanced technologies and experience of the bank’s staff will allow us to do everything possible to make recipients of funds feel as comfortable as they can and conduct payments in the shortest possible time," - says Mykhailo Rogalskyi, PrivatBank Head of Payments and Transfers. - "Of course, all payments and other transactions within this project the bank carries out without fees for recipients."

Within the programme beneficiaries will receive SMS messages with PrivatBank’s hotline phone number, the amount of financial assistance and the place of receipt. They will also be sent the ICRC hotline number.

Since April 2014, the ICRC has been assisting local residents and displaced people affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine, providing them with food, household items and construction materials, as well as providing medicines and materials to hospitals on both sides of the front line.