{"id":39742,"date":"2015-08-10T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T14:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=30887"},"modified":"2015-08-10T20:37:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T17:37:13","slug":"30887-nagoduj_voina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/30887-nagoduj_voina","title":{"rendered":"Activists: Over twenty food outlets throughout Ukraine to feed ATO troops free of charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

WATCH IN ENGLISH<\/a><\/p>\n

Kyiv, August 10, 2015.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0The all-Ukrainian campaign, Feed a Warrior, was initiated by the civic organization, Anti-Terrorist Operation Veterans\u2019 Union. According to the organizers, Ukrainian troops are being demobilized, taking short leaves of short duration, and returning with injuries to undergo further treatment on non-combatant territory. Mariya Burdun, campaign organizer and board member of the NGO Svat, held a presentation of the Feed a Warrior campaign at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.<\/p>\n

Burdun said that ex-servicemen face numerous issues, such as how to get home, where to find funds for the trip and, above all, where to eat and at whose expense. \u00a0\u201cIt was exactly this problem that gave birth to the Feed a Warrior campaign. Any serviceman can now get free meals at special food outlets. His military rank is not important, and it doesn\u2019t matter whether he was drafted or is a volunteer soldier,\u201d said Burdun. Any food outlet can become a campaign participant. The pattern is simple: a campaign board is placed at a canteen, a caf\u00e9, a bar or a restaurant. Any patron can purchase, for instance, a cup of coffee and pay for another one. It will be put in reserve and later served to any ATO veteran. This information is placed on the information board, and meals in reserve are labeled with magnets. This is what a \u2018military menu\u2019 looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cA serviceman is to present any document proving his ATO participation in order to get a free meal or drink. It may be a reference from his commanding officer, a certificate of leave or treatment or any other document,\u201d said the campaign organizer. She also said that if a serviceman has no documents or certificates to prove his ATO participation, he can get free meals through a card provided by Svat. \u201cThis card contains no identifying information of the serviceman. Nevertheless, it contains a code indentifying all the information on the cardholder: regiment, period of stay in the ATO zone, military ranks, etc.,\u201d said Burdun.<\/p>\n

Even if this data were to be lost, leaving virtually no proof of a serviceman\u2019s participation in combat, the NGO, Legal Aid 3222, will look for evidence of the soldier\u2019s service. \u201cWe are trying to combine all the information on servicemen, ex-servicemen, drafted soldiers, volunteer soldiers, Ukrainian Armed Forces or Special Forces in order to be able to provide legal aid and data on any ATO participant,\u201d said the NGO\u2019s head, Denys Osmolovskyi.<\/p>\n

This campaign is only part of the social benefits the authorities promised to ex-servicemen, said ATO veteran Ihor Pylyavets. \u201cMany soldiers come back to non-combatant territories without funds or rehabilitation. So this campaign helps us feel at home,\u201d said the serviceman.<\/p>\n

Over twenty food outlets from Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Chervonohrad currently participate in the campaign. \u201cWe plan to distribute boards for servicemen at food outlets in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv. Follow the link http:\/\/www.s-w-a-t.org\/rehabilitation\/nagoduy-vona\/<\/a> to go to the website of Svat and learn more about participants of the Feed the Warrior campaign.<\/p>\n

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