Taufkirchen can help Ukrainian community with new town twinning
Created: 01/13/2023, 12:30 p.m
By: Laura May
The SPD-Taufkirchen proposes to the municipal council a “municipal solidary town twinning” with the western Ukrainian municipality of Peretschyn with a population of 12,000 (symbolic photo).
© IMAGO/Raul Moreno
The SPD-Taufkirchen proposes to the municipal council a “municipal solidary town twinning” with the western Ukrainian municipality of Peretschyn, which has 12,000 inhabitants.
Taufkirchen
– In October, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky called for German-Ukrainian town twinning.
The SPD-Taufkirchen supports this idea of low-threshold help and proposes to the municipal council a “municipal solidary town partnership” with the western Ukrainian municipality of Peretschyn, which has 12,000 inhabitants.
The 4000 internally displaced persons are currently assigned.
Even been there eight times on aid trips to Peretschyn
The idea came from Michael Schanz from the Taufkirchner SPD.
He is a member of the Bavarian East Society and has been on eight aid trips to Peretschyn himself.
The city mainly has to do with people who have fled from the embattled eastern Ukraine.
"Very different people flee there than to Germany," says Schanz.
It is often poor and sick people who cannot pay for or physically manage to flee abroad.
improvement of living conditions
According to Schanz, the proposed town twinning with Peretschyn would have nothing to do with the “dusty town twinning” as we know it.
It is specifically about improving the living conditions on site through donations in kind and exchange - also with Ukrainians who now live in Taufkirchen.
The direct contact between Michael Schanz and the Ostgesellschaft prevents aid and donations from seeping away.
“We have very good relationships with the local people,” says Schanz.
"This is 100 percent corruption-free."
There is a lack of food, clothing, heating facilities or medical care
The vote on whether Taufkirchen accepts the town twinning is in the municipal council on January 26th.
In the event of a positive decision, Taufkirchen can decide for itself exactly how help is provided – in Peretschyn, for example, there is a lack of food, clothing, heating facilities or medical care.
"Of course, the community determines what they want to finance there," says Schanz.
In addition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) finances the aid measures up to 90 percent and up to 50,000 euros.
Within this framework, measures such as: ensuring local health care, local disaster control, self-help activities to reduce the effects of the crisis on the population and refugees in the communities or administrative measures,
With a positive decision on the town twinning, the Taufkirchner municipal council could bring considerable federal funds to Peretschyn and thus alleviate the suffering there.
