Ilsur Metshin: “We will offset the fuel costs to volunteers who provide food deliver to elderly”

Today, Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin visited the Volunteers headquarters, which provides food and medicine delivery to elderly citizens. Almost 500 volunteers are involved in this work. The head of the capital of Tatarstan spoke with volunteers and found out what help the most responsive people in the city need. At the meeting, he promised to resolve the issue of compensation of the fuel costs for volunteers who deliver goods using their own cars.

The Volunteers headquarters in the city started functioning on March 24, each district has its own division, said Airat Faizov, head of the Committee for children and youth affairs. To date, the number of volunteers is 497, with an average age of 33 years. Whole families join the volunteering movement in Kazan. Most of the volunteers work from home, where they receive information about incoming requests. Volunteers take shifts at the headquarters to provide emergency assistance.

The request is processed within two hours after receiving. “At this moment, 75 applications have already been received – A.Faizov said. – In total, more than 860 applications were carried out during this period. Yesterday we received a record number of applications - 205 and 186 of them were processed. Usually we receive from 30 to 50 calls from local citizens per day. Mostly they ask to deliver food and about a quarter of them ask for medicines. The average age of citizens who call is 85 years, and 90 percent are senior people living alone".

Volunteers receive a list of products and money for the purchase from the senior people. They do not enter the apartment of the elderly citizens of Kazan, they communicate with them wearing masks and gloves cleaned with antiseptic, A.Faizov emphasized.

“How do people like this service, what questions do they have?” – the Mayor asked the volunteers working at the headquarters today.

“They react differently. Many people do not trust us at first, but then they start calling regularly, we have already delivered food to some addresses several times”, – said Marina Shchegoleva, a volunteer.

Many volunteers deliver the food and medicine in their cars, said M. Shchegoleva and addressed to the Mayor with a request for compensation of fuel costs.

“We will definitely solve these issues, we need to receive information about the amount of needed fuel, - Ilsur Metshin said. - We have provided vehicles from the Executive Committee for volunteers. But it is clear that there are many requests, a lot of volunteers use personal cars. We will offset the fuel costs to volunteers who deliver food to elderly in their cars”.

In conclusion, the Mayor thanked the volunteers for their work. “Almost 500 people help elderly citizens of Kazan. Among them, there are volunteers helping us since the Universiade and other major events. Our citizens are eager to help in this difficult and responsible period as well. That means a lot. I am very proud that we have such responsive and kind citizens in Kazan,”- I.Metshin noted.