American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC for brevity): JDC Belarus is currently funding many financial needs for the dwindling number of survivors there. The poorest of the Former Soviet Union countries, it is not surprising that there is good news coupled with the urgent need for additional funding. The following categories are currently being funded in Belarus to all needy Holocaust survivors. Food Services include: food packages in the most distant regions, and hot lunches in addition to these, from 30 dining room locations where more recipients reside and can be fed collectively. There are presently over one hundred home-based soup kitchens (Warm Houses/Bayit Cham) serving clients. Clients also receive fresh food sets, and Meals on Wheels routes serves the most distant population. Medical Services include: loans for the purchase of rehabilitation equipment, specific medical consultations, and medications. General Services provide: home care, winter relief packages (usually including warm clothing, shoes, and blankets among other items), and legal consultations.

To put this in financial perspective, the monthly average pension in Belarus (when it is received at all, which is sporadic) is $13.05. The minimum pension is $8.93. These tiny sums are all that aging Holocaust survivors have in Belarus, other than what non-governmental agencies can provide. Could anyone possibly live on thirteen dollars a month? Particularly poignant is the fact that most of these people are alone, having lost all their families half a century ago. Whatever savings they may have had, has long since evaporated due to inflation, and currently there is an 18-month waiting period for any medical equipment, even as fundamental a necessity as wheelchairs. The current requirement that those hospitalized must provide their own linen, medicine, and food, essentially means elderly Holocaust survivors have no access to hospitals - unless we provide it.