The president of the Diputación de Alicante, Carlos Mazón, held a meeting with heads of Ukrainian associations from different municipalities in the province, as well as fifty mayors from Alicante towns where people from the Ukraine currently reside.
The purpose of the meeting was to confirm the support of the Province for the efforts that are being undertaken and to inform them of an initial emergency package of 2 million euro, approved in the March plenary session, to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine through Approved NGOs such as UNHCR, Cruz Roja, Caritas and Medicus Mundi.
In addition, during the session, which lasted for more than two hours, Mazón also announced that the Provincial Council will provide a line of direct aid for those municipalities that welcome Ukrainian refugees in order to defray the social expenses derived from their care and assistance, maintenance, food, health and housing.
“The mayors and municipal officials have been given a voice in an executive meeting whose purpose is to make everyone aware of what we are doing in the Provincial Council and what we can do”, he said, adding that the municipalities “are the first line of collection and reception, that is why from the Diputación we provide direct aid to the more than 50 municipalities that have Ukrainians in their municipalities who are collecting relatives and close friends”.
The president, said that we do not know where the reception area, to be launched by the Generalitat Valenciana, will finally be set up, but, “The effort that they are carrying out during these days is commendable”, said Mazón, “because there is still no official reception place, nor is there a protocol established by the regional government”.
The event, held in the Plenary Hall, was also attended by the first vice president and deputy for Culture, Julia Parra, the second vice president, Ana Serna, and the deputies of International Residents, Juan de Dios Navarro, the deputy of the Provincial Home, Teresa Belmonte, and the Deputy for Social Services, Mª Carmen Jover.
Also present were the deputy for Infrastructure, Javier Guitérrez, the deputy for the Presidency and mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón, the deputy and mayor of Almoradí, María Gómez, the spokesperson for the Socialist Group and mayor of Alcoi, Toni Francés, the deputy and Mayor of Xixona, Isabel López, and Deputy Patricia Maciá as well as many other Provincial officials.
The president of the Association of Ukrainians of Alicante, Anna Shkalenko, and Torrevieja, Natalia Zhezhnyavska, were also involved in the meeting.
During the session, the mayors spoke about their needs, proposing ways to speed up procedures and negotiations with host families. From the institution, the deputies of the areas involved explained how to accelerate these actions and have made an email available to the municipalities ( ukrania@diputacionalicante.es ) to answer questions and provide technical and legal assistance to the Alicante people.
The first solidarity action promoted by the Provincial Council along these lines took place last week, when a convoy made up of nine volunteers and four vehicles from the Provincial Firefighters Consortium travelled to Medyca, a Polish city bordering Ukraine, to bring humanitarian and return with a group of 27 refugees. The caravan covered 3,000 kilometres to go and another 3,000 to return to bring medicine, food, clothing, toys and basic necessities and return with Ukrainians fleeing the war.
