Reacting to the tragedy which occurred in several towns and villages of the Krasnodar territory and swept away over 170 lives, the Department for Interregional Cooperation, Social Inclusion and Relations with Religious Organizations, the Moscow House of Nationalities and the communities and national public associations of Moscow have organized the raising of funds and humanitarian aid for families affected by the disaster.
VK: Tell us please, how did you decide to collect aid for the victims?
Ildar Alyautdinov, the imam of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque: We, Muslims, must always try to help where it is needed, among the first. Regardless of who is in such a difficult situation - Muslims or non-Muslims, we should in any case be the first to respond to this and to help. This is like our religious duty to our Creator. When the tragedy occurred, the spiritual administrations were immediately involved in the process. The spiritual administration of Adygea and Krasnodar Territory, which is part of the Council of Muftis of Russia, is directly involved in the assistance. The spiritual administration of the Moscow region is doing its best to participate in all the processes of supporting the victims.
Assistance and charity work are an inevitable aspect of the activity of any person who believes. This is inevitable and necessary. And, of course, we are trying to resolve any difficult situation. There are charity foundations which are engaged in this activity and try to take part in assistance if it is necessary. This is necessary both at national and regional level at at the individual one. If a person is in a difficult situation, if he is knocking at different doors and cannot find out who will help him, temples should be the first to open their doors and to say: "We exist in order to help you."
Andrey Silin, priest: The Church has a wide experience of assisting people affected by natural disasters, in this case – by the flooding in Krasnodar Territory. Here in Moscow people raise funds and provide charitable and humanitarian assistance, because it is necessary to homeless people. In addition, two clergymen and a nurse who took short courses at the training center of the MOE were sent there. Their task is now to support the families who have lost their loved ones, to appeal them to pray and also to worship in the Ekaterinodar diocese. In addition, we help the victims at the Church of the Archangel Michael. There is also a mobile kitchen trailer where hundreds of people can get necessary hot meals and basic necessities 16-18 hours per day.
Parandzhem Zurubaeva, chairman of the Foundation for Kurdish Refugees: Today I received a call from the House of Nationalities and was told that it was necessary to assist the victims of the flooding. I immediately responded to this event. I took all the necessary things and brought them here. I know very well what this situation is, so I took it very much to heart.
VK: Tell us how you got the idea to raise aid for the victims?
Ismail Shabanov, head of the Talysh diaspora: You know, after such an event which occurred in the Kuban region, no one can remain indifferent. Every citizen of Russia should respond to it, including our diaspora. When we found out that there is a collection of humanitarian aid here, we have also decided to collect some things, as many as possible, and our diaspora has come and brought them here. I hope our help will be useful, though it is quite small. I think this aid will symbolize at least a cry from our heart, a response of our soul. Therefore, we are happy to come and to be with our friends and fellow citizens; we want to show that we are also worried about those who are injured. We are close to them. We are ready to continue to support them.
VK: Have you ever been involved in such actions before?
Ismail Shabanov: Yes, we have been involved in them several times. Moreover, when there was, let us say, an explosion in the subway, the construction of a church or a mosque, the representatives of our diaspora always participated in raising funds. And when there were terrorist attacks, we acted the same way. We will never remain indifferent to participation in such events.
Michael Huseynov, secretary general of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress: First, I want to express my condolences to the families of the people who have suffered. We, the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress, in particular, the regional branch of Krasnodar Territory, have gone there in order to do our best to support the families from the first day I heard about the disaster. Today we established acollection station for humanitarian aid under the auspices of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress. And, of course, we also came here, to Novaya Basmannaya. In addition, there is another collection station in Baku. Regional offices have already received information that it is necessary to help, and they are transferring their financial aid. Because it is difficult to bring the necessities from the remote regions of Russia, we understand this. We have already started to transfer the necessary amount of financial assistance through bank accounts. As soon as we heard about this, the local, regional nearby offices and Astrakhan and Stavropol offices were told to support the families of the victims by their help. This action is still continuing.
VK: Tell me how you got the idea of organizing this action?
Ionna Matova, executive director of the Union of Georgians in Russia: First of all, this is a terrible tragedy. As soon as we heard about this tragedy, I was very pleased that young people were the first to respond to it. They started calling me; they started talking about what we should do. They started to respond as soon as it was announced on TV and the press began writing. Immediately young people got together and decided to collect money. They gradually began to gather and raise funds. We decided that it would be better to centralize our actions and to buy everything new which was needed for these poor needy people. And when we were told today that there is a collection of aid in the House of Nationalities, naturally we were very happy, because we had bought a lot of things, and we immediately ran to buy the rest. Today we are still buying these things in order to make some small contribution to this noble cause for which we have gathered here today. Of course, we are very grateful to the House of Nationalities and to City Hall, which was able to organize this action for our national communities. We are always together in all our troubles and joys.
VK: So have you already organized such actions more than once?
Ionna Matova: Certainly. The actions were associated with the Spitak tragedy, with all the hot spots, and so on. We are one of the first to help, anyway. We know what war is. We know how difficult it is. As soon as we find out that something has happened, we are always close to the victims.
Yuri Zabolevl, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Yakutia under the President: I want to address all the residents of the Kuban region and to say that they will not remain alone with their trouble. In 2001 the city of Lensk, with almost 3.5 thousand buildings, was flooded in our region. It was a great flood, the water rose 17 meters. But the whole country helped us. Now all of us also will come and help. The new town of Krymsk will be built, I suppose. We must now simply go through this difficult time. I must say to every citizen who suffered: we are with you, we are helping you, hold on, everything will be fine. You will get a new home by the fall. I am convinced of this.
Yuri Artyukh, head of the Department for Interregional Cooperation, Social Inclusion and Relations with Religious Organizations of Moscow Government: People, residents of Moscow of different origins and different religions, did not gather to hold some action; it's just such a spiritual impulse. This day the heart has prompted them to help people, because it is not someone else’s trouble: when there is such a tragedy, people do not look at origins or anything else, they just help. In my opinion, that is what is happening now.
VK: Are there a lot of people here?
Yuri Artyukh: Yeah, a lot of people. We actually just started working on Sunday, when everything more or less became clear. By tomorrow we will collect full containers which we will send immediately to the town of Krymsk, and on Saturday people will already get everything that was collected in Moscow.
VK: How long will this action last?
Yuri Artyukh: It will last as long as necessary. Until we see that people have finally found a roof over their head, they have a piece of bread, they have hope for the future, we will carry out this action.
