On Thursday, September 21, our charitable foundation "Development and Social Justice of Ukraine" together with the NGO partner organization "Kharkiv Association of Blind Lawyers" held a round table on the topic "Social guarantees and rehabilitation of citizens physically affected by the war."

The main goal of this event was to discuss the needs and problems of wounded civilians, initiate support programs for this category at the local and state level, and social guarantees for people affected by explosive devices. The event was held in the "NAKYPILO" media space, for which we are very grateful to the entire team!

The project to help wounded children and women, which is carried out by our foundation in the Kharkiv region, is implemented with the support of the Ukrainian Educational Platform and DanChurchAid.

At this very important event, the head of the foundation, Ridna Olga, told the audience about the project itself to help wounded civilians, and the main problems faced by the wounded - the lack of systematic material support from the state, very expensive treatment, operations and rehabilitation after severe injuries, difficulties in registering for disability as a result of the war, the difficulty of obtaining compensation for injuries, the lack of information for the victims in the hospital, social services and other institutions with which they have contact due to their difficult situation and the painful lack of even the most necessary for life and restoration of health.

The head of the NGO "Kharkiv Association of Blind Lawyers", Oleg Lepetyuk, spoke about the legal aspects of regulating legal relations in the field of state support for civilians affected by the Russian military aggression and emphasized the need to initiate comprehensive support programs at the local and all-Ukrainian level.

Dmytro Vlashchenko, lawyer Dmytro Vlashchenko, expert of the Board of Directors of the BF "Development and Social Justice of Ukraine" highlighted the problematic issues of registration of the status of a victim of explosive objects and the establishment of disability as a result of the war.

Also, the emotional performance of Nataliya Koshara, who herself was seriously wounded and barely survived the shelling in her house, in a village near Balaklia, became very important. Natalya lost an eye as a result of the injury, suffered severe damage to her internal organs, and there are still many pieces of debris in her body. Natalya told about her problems and the fact that she still has not been able to register her disability as a result of the war, because there are many obstacles at different levels.

Representatives of state bodies - social departments, health department, MSEK, police, representatives of the district administration were present. It is a very good sign that representatives of specialized services found the time and opportunity to attend our event, because they also work directly with such categories of affected citizens.

We discussed how exactly we can improve communications between public activists who are constantly dealing with the problems of the victims and relevant services and departments. We will provide our booklets and recommendations on how to obtain an extract from the register of pre-trial investigations, how to prepare the registration of a war disability group and other important tips.

Also, at the event, a resolution was adopted regarding working out with relevant state institutions the mechanism and procedure for adopting emergency measures to support wounded civilians at the regional level and the level of territorial communities.

With such an appeal, we plan to appeal to:

− Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,

- Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine,

- Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine,

- Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

The resolution also proposed to carry out constant monitoring of the observance of the rights of citizens affected by explosive objects. To inform state authorities and local self-government bodies, the public, human rights organizations and international structures about the discovered facts of systematic non-compliance with international humanitarian law. And also to monitor the implementation of the Law "On Mine Action in Ukraine" and the relevant Resolutions of the CMU, to involve international human rights organizations, charitable and public organizations, monitoring missions, to help ensure the protection of the rights of citizens affected by explosive objects.

Thank you to everyone who is involved in such important issues that can help tens of thousands of wounded civilians throughout Ukraine!