Prague, Sept 18 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is not part of the main routes that the refugees from the Middle East use on their way through Europe, but Czech citizens may help the refugees by donating money, warm clothes, sleeping bags or other items, and by providing accommodation and working as volunteers.
People may register the offered or demanded aid to refugees in the Czech Republic and in other European countries on the website pomocuprchlikum.cz.
People can financially support NGOs that operate in the regions of the conflict, such as People in Need humanitarian organisation that is active in Syria.
People in Need head Simon Panek said 12.2 million people in Syria need aid.
“The hundreds of thousands of Syrians who applied for asylum in some European country are only 4 percent of the total number of people who have fled from war,” Panek said.
One third of the Syrians are refugees in their own country, he said.
People may send money via SMS donations. In this way, they may support People in Need, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF or the Czech Charity. The fundraising campaigns are supervised by Czech authorities.
People who speak the mother tongues of the refugees, namely Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and Urdu, are in high demand. The Doctors Without Borders group is seeking new colleagues, especially an orthopaedist, a traumatologist and a gynaecologist.
Volunteers may help organise, sort and carry the items that people donate to the refugees.
At the Prague Main Station, over 200 volunteers have been helping refugees who arrive by trains, mostly from Czech detention centres.
Monika Horakova, who organises this aid, said the volunteers give the refugees warm clothes or food or buy them train tickets. She said the Czech state is not trying to help the refugees.
The Prague centre Klinika sent ten vehicles with aid to Hungary and five vehicles to the Czech detention centres.
In a number of Czech towns donations of various items for refugees have been organised. The most demanded are warm clothes and boots, non-perishable food, personal care products, blankets, sleeping bags, tents, sheets, disposable nappies and toys.
