Ricklingen District Council spent 2,000 euros on Ukraine refugees
Help the needy people in the Ukraine quickly and unbureaucratically – that’s what the Hanoverian district councils want. As the second city-wide body, the Ricklingen district council decided at its most recent meeting to provide emergency aid of 2,000 euros from its own budget.
The decision is unanimous. The Ricklinger politicians are following the initiative of their colleagues from the Misburg-Anderten district council last week. The money is to benefit the Ukrainian Association of Lower Saxony (UVN), which wants to organize medical equipment, among other things.
“The moment of help for the people of Ukraine is now”
In its emergency motion, the Ricklinger District Council condemns the war in Ukraine. “The fastest and most effective help is currently to be realized in particular through monetary donations,” says the approved application. The UVN presented the situation and its aid initiative at a special meeting of the network of the Hanoverian integration advisory boards. “This help for sick and wounded people in Ukraine was the safest request in our district council meeting,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Sophie Bergmann.
District Mayor Andreas Markurth (SPD) was shocked by the war that Russia had started. “Some time ago, our focus was on overcoming the corona pandemic, and a military confrontation on European soil no longer seemed imaginable,” he said. Now is the time to act. “The moment of help for the people of Ukraine is now.”
District council bodies vote on aid
The district councils usually provide money for local projects in their areas of responsibility from the budget available to them. “We have an exceptional situation,” emphasized Markurth. And in exceptional, well-justified cases, grants could also go to initiatives that are active elsewhere – such as the UVN in Ukraine. In addition, the first refugees from the war zone have already arrived in Hanover. “It definitely affects us, too,” said Markurth.
He will coordinate further emergency aid with the district council committees; after all, the other district councils are still meeting throughout March. In Herrenhausen-Stöcken, the politicians will not meet until March 30th. Payment in several tranches is also conceivable in order to be able to give the UVN an electrical helping hand. “We will now discuss this with each other and with the city administration,” said Markurth, who is also the spokesman for the 13 district councils.
The goal is that a larger sum comes together solely through the initiative of the district committees.
By Marcel Schwarzenberger