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The meeting was held via videoconference and was timed to International Human Rights Day. The main report was delivered by Presidential Adviser and Chair of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Valery Fadeyev.

Excerpts from transcript of meeting of Council for Civil Society and Human Rights

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

I am delighted to see you. Greetings on International Human Rights Day, which we mark today, on December 10. I would like to address those who are engaged in this noble and important activity in the regions and at the federal level – human rights commissioners, volunteers, active members of NPOs, and media professionals.

You are well aware of the people’s concerns and needs, you maintain constant direct contact with them, while support, assistance and engagement with the people’s problems remain an unconditional priority.

I know that it is sometimes very difficult to ensure a just solution to the problems people bring to you, yet you manage this in most cases, always trying to do as much as you can. Of great importance for the effectiveness of your activities are your prestige and the trust people have placed in you thanks to your hard daily efforts, as well as your persistence and ability to uphold your views, convincing others and finding mutually acceptable solutions and compromises.

The main thing is that you are always on the side of truth, on the side of the interests of a person and a citizen. There is a powerful word in Russian, zastupnichestvo (advocacy), which certainly describes your efforts. I would like to express my gratitude to you for your unwavering responsiveness to the needs of our citizens, for your compassion and generosity of spirit.

I would like to welcome new members to our Council: Rector of the Higher School of Economics Nikita Anisimov, Chair of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia Sergei Chernogayev, and journalist and member of the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly Alexander Malkevich. You all have a wealth of experience in your fields, and I am confident that the Council will benefit from such outstanding professionals and active citizens as you.

Today, people need your assistance and support in dealing with concrete problems, primarily in the realisation of their rights to housing, work, leisure and a decent pay and pension. The social dimension has been a major focus for the Council for many years.

I would like to mention at the outset that you are actively involved in helping the participants in the special military operation and their families. It is very important that in doing so, you closely collaborate with the Civic Chamber, volunteer organisations and the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation.

Members of the Council are helping residents in the areas that are under enemy fire. They are working extensively to provide our heroes on the frontline with all they need, including with the so-called people’s defence industry products. I have mentioned earlier that this is a real industry, and we need to actively utilise its resources.

You regularly visit our historical territories of Donbass and Novorossiya, and you know the needs of their residents. We will certainly discuss all of these matters today. I would like to emphasise the importance of your efforts in documenting human rights violations by the Kiev regime, as well as its war crimes. You keep the international community informed about this.

Colleagues,

I would like to emphasise that despite the well-known external restrictions and the challenges we face, our country and our state are meeting all their social commitments. For instance, in the next three years, we plan to allocate a quarter of all budget spending for this purpose. Though, 'investment' would be a more appropriate term here instead of ‘spending.’ When we spend money on wages and pensions, on healthcare, education, culture, and sports, we are, in fact, investing in human capital and the preservation of our nation.

Ensuring that people live more active, healthier and longer lives is of fundamental importance – this is the name of one of our national projects. We have recently discussed the work to be done to implement these projects and to achieve national goals at the meeting of the Council for Strategic Development.

National projects are centred around the individual, the interests of Russian families, and concern almost every aspect of society. They constitute a programme of action for the entire country, for our entire society until 2030. I believe that our Council will also decide on its hands-on participation in implementing these ambitious plans.

One of the most important tasks is, as I said before, to preserve lives and keep people healthy, which implies the smooth operation of primary healthcare, the development of high-tech medicine, and the provision of medicines. All this should be available in every region of Russia. The Council always keeps this under review. If you have any proposals, I am ready to listen and discuss them with my colleagues in the Government. I know that there are always numerous issues in these areas.

You remain engaged in subjects pertaining to education, including general school, working together with the Ministry of Education, regional authorities, as well as teachers’ and parents’ communities. Much has been done to promote the prestige of the teaching profession. The teacher’s personality, outlook, ability to uncover talent and support students’ aspirations for growth are of great importance today. All of this is closely aligned with the realisation of the child’s and the teacher’s rights.

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Alexander Ionov: Russia is the leader in upholding the citizens’ legitimate interests and rights. Our country has established and successfully operates both public and civil society human rights protection institutions.

Unfortunately, for a long time, biased organisations operated in our country, which were funded from abroad and used by the United States as a tool in waging a global hybrid war. Today, however, new human rights NGOs are emerging, which are setting clear and fair objectives of supporting and assisting various groups of the population.

Mr President, renowned Russian human rights advocates and activists, members of the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights and the Civic Chamber, have decided to establish an autonomous nonprofit organisation called National Human Rights Committee.

The information policy of unfriendly countries towards Russia and our allies remains well-coordinated, well-funded, and includes the blocking of Russian information resources. However, the global human rights architecture is now shifting towards the world majority.

The standards imposed by the collective West erode cultural identity and destroy traditional values. Unfortunately, international organisations that are controlled by and depend on their sponsors fail to report horrific human rights violations in Ukraine, where thousands of individuals accused of ties to Russia remain behind bars and are subjected to torture.

This is not limited to Ukraine. Simply having connections to Russia can lead to imprisonment or placement on an international wanted list at the request of the United States. Cases involving activists such as Omali Yeshitela, Dimitri Simes, and Scott Ritter prove this. Unfortunately, I myself am also on an international wanted list at the request of the United States.

In order to further advance the international human rights efforts, I would like to ask you to support the creation of an international nongovernmental organisation within BRICS with an eye towards establishing a new global humanitarian architecture. Under the auspices of this organisation, a multilingual human rights monitoring portal will operate, providing publicly accessible information about reports on human rights compliance across various regions.

Vladimir Putin: Regarding the new organisation, the new centre, I fully agree with you and your assessments of what the situation was like before. Truth be told, many people in the previous system did honest work and tried to address issues inside the country as best they could, but we both know that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

When we talk about funding human rights activities, we need to create a mechanism for using funds allocated either by the state or public organisations or our companies. This mechanism should draw a line between the use of funds and the source of funds. We need to establish a mechanism or a system that would use the resources independently.

I understand that this is no easy task, but something we must strive for. No matter how much we anathematise things that happen with human rights abroad – let’s face it, we do need to do that, because this is also part of the information confrontation that we cannot avoid, so we must respond to that. However, our main objective is to ensure the protection of human rights in our own country.

This, I believe, is my mission as well, and my key responsibility as the head of state. This responsibility is shared by the Presidential Executive Office, the judiciary, and the Prosecutor’s Office. Yet, no matter how hard these official bodies may try to address these issues, a significant and meaningful portion of this work lies with nongovernmental organisations, because they operate outside the rigid confines of official standards, requirements, and regulations. They act with genuine intent. People feel it and respond positively to NGO activities.

Ultimately, the shared goal of NGOs and government bodies is to meet the needs of the people. This is our common mission. So, the main focus of our work should be serving the people of the Russian Federation. Let’s put our heads together and think about it, alright? Of course, we are willing to support your efforts and will do everything necessary to make sure that the new National Human Rights Centre operates effectively.

You mentioned that you are, unfortunately, on a wanted list at the request of the United States, but you should not regret it. We all live and work here. Let them figure things out among themselves first. Next thing you know, they will be putting each other on wanted lists. However, that is their problems, and we will focus on addressing ours.

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Igor Ashmanov, President of JSC Kribrum: I would like to speak about the situation in the digital sphere and the protection of people’s rights in the digital environment.

You have said that we continue to streamline the digital sphere. You have recently signed the much-awaited law on strengthening the legal protection of personal data. As you remember, it took nearly two years to adopt that law because digital businesses strongly pushed against it. Thankfully, it has now been adopted.

That is very good, because it is the first level of attack for phone scammers and recruiters. Phone recruitment and scamming begin with the establishment of trust because the callers know people’s personal data, including not only names, patronymics and family names but also their address, family status and even their credit contract numbers. Nevertheless, the adoption of the law has not settled the problem of phone scamming and attacks.

According to Interior Minister Kolokoltsev, these criminals stole over 150 billion rubles from our citizens last year alone, and the figure for this year is expected to be between 200 and 300 billion rubles. These figures have been confirmed, in particular, by Sberbank, which makes its own assessments.

So, the first issue I would like to speak about is this. More cases have been reported where people acting “under the influence,” as the Interior Ministry puts it, have lost their apartments. When placed “under the influence,” these people can act contrary to common sense for weeks, and no amount of persuasion can convince them to stop doing what they are doing.

However, the problem is more than just material damage, even though it is huge and keeps growing. It is actually an instrument of war which the Kiev regime is using against our people. It is organised state-run crime, because all these call centres are located in Zaporozhye, the Kharkov Region, and so on, and are operating with support from the state and the Security Service of Ukraine. It is obvious that the purpose of these activities is not only scamming but also recruitment, intimidation of the families of our military personnel, harassment, and so on.

As a result, our people have developed a fear of telephone calls. They are genuinely afraid of answering unknown callers. In fact, many are not aware of the number of such calls. According to the Interior Ministry and Sberbank, between 10 and 20 million scamming, recruitment and other criminal calls are made every day.

What is so important about them? First, an overwhelming majority of calls are made from Ukraine. Second, we are talking about the so-called IP calls via the internet. This means that their accomplices in Russia reroute these calls via conventional telephone networks.

This year, the Federal Security Service has, at long last, started combating these private data processing centres with multiple SIM boxes, specifically, routers where thousands and tens of thousands of SIM cards are installed. In spring, they arrested dozens of people and confiscated 200,000 to 300,000 SIM cards, which had been sold to scammers. These accomplices essentially operate within our territory, taking money stolen by Ukrainian scammers to help them steal more from our citizens.

Investigators step in when there is an attempt to seize property. We should realise that mobile operators, or their partners in specific territories and regions, inevitably facilitate this tremendous volume of calls. Understandably, we need to take action regarding this. Technical systems for facilitating operational activities make it possible to locate these private data processing centres. This work should continue.

To be frank, we believe that the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) now has sufficiently powerful technical means to counter these threats. These systems make it possible to block this tidal wave of telephone calls from Ukraine or, at the very least, to slow it down. This is important because their number would decrease significantly. Yes, this will be a struggle between the shield and the sword; they will sneak through backdoors and start calling from Finland or Norway. Nevertheless, we believe that this should be done.

There might be a minor problem with legitimate calls, including the operational activities of our special services or their relatives. However, their number is absolutely insignificant compared to this tidal wave. We should simply create a different technical environment for them, and this is also possible.

In addition, it is important to realise that by doing this, these impostor recruiters are actually waging a war against our people. Most of them pose as someone in authority calling from a government agency, a bank, or a state body – an official, an investigator from the prosecutor’s office, a representative of public services, and so on.

This is what we probably need to do: all officials should be instructed to make calls to citizens only from listed official numbers – or even from landline telephones only. Bank managers and government officials should not be allowed to make work calls using whatever is convenient – their mobile phones during lunch breaks or even WhatsApp or Telegram, as many tend to do now. By doing so, they are in fact making life easier for scammers posing as officials to deceive people, thereby undermining the authority of the state.

Naturally, this can only be successful if we make the use of spoofed caller ID information illegal. Formally, mobile service providers are not allowed to do this, but if they do, it is just an administrative offenсe. This regulation does not include individuals, so technically, they can legally do it. This means private data centres are allowed to do anything, when normally, scamming should be illegal. There is no valid reason for spoofing one’s caller ID, and helping scammers to do it is the last thing we should do.

Accordingly, the Council asks to instruct the Ministry of Digital Development, the Government, and Roskomnadzor to consider three motions: blocking or slowing down the wave of calls from Ukraine, making caller ID spoofing a criminal offence and creating a pool of official telephone numbers for officials.

And the last point. I would like to thank you for mentioning the Digital Code. This is very important because, besides adopting the laws in question – they are good, but this is being done out of urgency, because we need to quickly plug the holes – we need to finally create a well-structured code so that society, individuals and digital businesses have a clear understanding of what is allowed and what is not allowed in our country. This process seems to have been stalling over the past year; there doesn’t seem to be any movement there. Could we possibly spur this process?

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. The digital environment and citizens’ rights are a boundless issue. Problems related to citizens’ rights are encountered at every stage in the development of the digital environment − this is undeniable.

As for those who fall “under the influence” – of course, I will definitely bring this to the attention of the Prosecutor General’s Office, law enforcement and regulatory agencies again. I will definitely point this out to them again.

Indeed, there is malign influence from Ukraine; we know this for certain. In fact, that country has elevated this to state policy and is using it as one of the tactics to attack us, to attack our population. This is often done directly by state bodies or agencies controlled by the Ukrainian government. This is definitely one of their lines of attack.

Therefore, Roskomnadzor and our other agencies will certainly receive relevant instructions. This will include blocking actions, once we think through the details. Of course, operational activities will not be affected, but with regard to individuals, users, we need to look into this again.

The three points that you mentioned and asked for relevant instructions to be issued will be combined, and an instruction will be formulated.

As for the Digital Code, we will also try to give an additional push to this work. Thank you.

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Vladimir Putin: (commenting on a statement by Moskovsky Komsomolets reporter Yeva Merkacheva about the status, role and development of trial by jury) Thank you very much for raising this issue.

I will begin with a brief comment. Of course, trial by jury is a sufficiently democratic institution of the justice system, and it has a good history in our country. This is obvious. Its introduction in the Russian system of justice has led to the emergence of a constellation of absolutely outstanding lawyers.

The reason for that was that it was possible and necessary to influence the decisions of the jurors on who was guilty and who was not guilty, on whether they were guilty or deserved leniency. To influence people who were not professional lawyers, it was possible and necessary to speak not only convincingly but also eloquently. That is why we had Plevako, Aleksandorv and a host of other remarkable lawyers, of whom our history of law and justice is rightfully proud.

But the history of the use of that system is more complicated than it may seem at first glance. I would like to remind you that Koni, for example, who convinced the jury to declare Vera Zasulich not guilty even though she had shot Trepov, was eventually fired and worked as a defence attorney, if memory serves.

So, it was quite difficult to organise the jury system in the broad sense of the word and in accordance with the laws that were in effect back then. Koni did not violate any laws but acted in keeping with the law. Yet he was asked to leave his position nevertheless, and he complied. This calls for careful scrutiny. In itself, trial by jury is a good institution and should certainly be promoted.

You have also mentioned our realities. To begin with, what is the current reality? It is the reality of the special military operation. However, we have not reintroduced capital punishment, although I can assure you – and you definitely know this too – that a large number of our citizens and politicians raise this issue time and again. We have not done this even in conditions of hostilities, and these are very serious hostilities. On the contrary, we have adopted a series of decisions aimed at making our system of justice more humane and, as I have mentioned, we are reducing the number of people in prisons and detention centres.

Moreover, in the case of broad use of trial by jury, members of the jury will find it extremely difficult to attain justice in some of our entities and territories, which I would like you to remember when you speak about our realities. That is what they are now. Even professional judges sometimes find it difficult to attain justice. They sometimes need to move trials to other regions of the Russian Federation from the ones where a crime was committed. So, it will be extremely difficult in serious cases.

Nevertheless, you are right. Just like you, I support the idea of broader use of the trial by jury system. We will move towards that goal by all means. But our movement should be adjusted to the existing reality, which you have mentioned. It should also be adjusted to the readiness of our society for broader use of this institution. At any rate, I agree with you that we should use it and make broader use of it, or else our society will never be ready for it. We will certainly move towards this goal together with you.

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Marina Akhmedova, editor-in-chief, Regnum: Mr President, good afternoon.

This year, members of the Human Rights Council worked in the Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod regions. We went to the Kursk Region immediately after the enemy offensive began to find out what the residents needed. From then on, we worked alongside volunteers in temporary accommodation centres. We bought, collected and delivered [humanitarian supplies], and that wasn’t really anything worth mentioning – it’s just that we could not stay in Moscow when our country and people suffered like that.

We met so many different people. One of them, Roman Yatsenko from the Kursk Region, the father of five children – when Ukraine launched the offensive, he was in Moscow at work, but he immediately left for Sudzha and reached his home. He evacuated his own children under fire, while foreign mercenaries were shooting, not really caring that they were shooting at small children.

We met young men and women who were returning to the most dangerous areas to evacuate old people, total strangers. We met Imam Isa Salimsultanov, who had evacuated over 500,000 people, all of them Orthodox believers. There was not a single Muslim among them. Unfortunately, we also met people whom we could not help because it was too late. All we could do was listen while they talked.

We regularly visit the Belgorod Region and work in an evacuation hospital, where fighters are brought from the frontline. I always see doctors there dead on their feet, but they keep working because we Russians are in the habit of asking ourselves: who, if not me?

I saw doctors who extracted drone fuses from wounds with their bare hands. Once a soldier with a fuse in his body was brought to the hospital, and protocol required summoning a sapper group, but there was no time because the soldier was bleeding profusely. The young surgeon told everyone to leave the operating room and stayed with the wounded man. I asked him if he realised that he could die trying to save a total stranger or lose his arms. He said he had made a conscious choice, that he felt like a soldier at that moment and had to behave like a soldier. And he added that victory will definitely be ours. We petitioned for him to be recommended for a decoration.

My colleague Belekhova and I visit the Donetsk People’s Republic to process appeals from military personnel. I went to one military unit – I actually told you about it last year, and when I started visiting there and meeting the soldiers, they appeared quite confused and intimidated. Now they are completely different people. They have learned how to fight, and they are very effective. I visited them in October, and they told me they were just doing their job the same way they had been working back home, operating machines at factories, teaching in schools, or working on projects as engineers. Their goal is to do their job as well as possible.

In my mind, all these people and places have blended into a kind of hum of time, the current of our life over the year. But what was its meaning? I talked with Valery Fadeyev about meanings and achievements, and he said that the most important achievement of our time is that we have managed to survive and influence the world order, although they are trying to destroy us from all sides.

I believe you understand this very well as a person who took over the country when it was literally falling apart, and managed to preserve it. Right now, the idea of defending our country brings us together, and many realise that nobody will defend it if they do not.

As a nation, we have set a course for victory. When you oppose aggressive countries or toughen the nuclear doctrine, of course, it is a little frightening, but we are not just passive bystanders. We support you. We are there with you and all around you. Victory is what we wish for deep within. I believe that when we get together next year, we will be able to congratulate each other on our victory.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, thank you very much. As far as I understand, you did not want to report a problem or make a proposal but wanted to express…

Marina Akhmedova: … our support.

Vladimir Putin: I understand. I heard you. Thank you very much for your support. Thank you for doing this work. I do not know if the surgeon you mentioned has been nominated for a state award. He should be found and nominated for it. It is a distinctive trait of many of our people to keep things they do at the call of the heart private. It is extremely important.

I was just talking to a colleague of ours who spoke about the jury trial. When the jury trial was just established, many went to court as if it were the theatre. I am not exaggerating. Because a completely new instrument of justice was brought to life – publicity in the broadest sense of the word. You had to influence the jury. You had to be eloquent and convincing. An entire constellation of outstanding Russian lawyers emerged as a result.

This is generally good, and we are rightly proud of it. But most people are far from publicity when they serve their duty. The men at the frontline have no time for publicity. Sometimes they risk every second – they risk their lives and health, but they push forward and liberate the territories and our people on the so-called new territories that are historically ours. They are fulfilling their duty to the Motherland and, of course, they need help and support.

You mentioned toughening the nuclear doctrine. We are not toughening the nuclear doctrine. We are upgrading it. And generally speaking, we need to improve Oreshnik rather than the nuclear doctrine. When you think about it, the advancement of modern weapon systems has almost eliminated the necessity for the use of nuclear weapons.

This is why we are rather careful across all sectors. I would even say we are restrained. But where it is necessary, we show the will at the state level and at the level of Russian citizens who live here and want their children to live here and consider Russia their Motherland, and are willing to do everything for it to grow stronger.

I would like to thank you for doing such a responsible and very important part of the work that you do. Thank you.

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Vladimir Putin (replying to remarks by Yan Vlasov, Co-Chair of the All-Russian Union of Patients’ Public Associations, who drew attention to the issue of providing patients with affordable innovative medications. This problem arose because foreign companies are conducting virtually no clinical research in Russia today, and it will take a long time to replace these medications. He suggested that the Government establish medication affordability criteria for the Russian market and the country’s patients; this concerns new innovative medications. He also suggested including representatives of the patients’ community in the relevant commission under the Health Ministry): I believe that both of these measures would be correct. Regarding the elaboration of criteria, I believe that they are available. But, if you believe that this is not enough, and that they need to be upgraded, then we should do this.

Nothing prevents us from including representatives of public organisations in this commission. They will assess this situation from another perspective, from the patients’ standpoint.

I will therefore advise the Health Ministry to start work on your proposal.

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Alexander Kots, war correspondent from the Komsomolskaya Pravda Media Group: Mr President, you have just said that we are liberating our people in the course of the special military operation. I would like to say a few kind words about them.

We have been advancing all year long; this advance is more active in some sectors and is slower elsewhere. The number of incoming refugees therefore tends to increase. They are our people to the core. These unfortunate people whom we are now evacuating from Selidovo and whom we evacuated earlier this year from Avdeyevka deliberately stayed behind. They suffered terrible hardships, lived in basements and cooked meals on bonfires. They did not want to retreat to Ukrainian territory. They wanted to remain on Russian territory, they waited to be liberated, to welcome our units, to enter Russian territory, to obtain passports of the Russian Federation’s citizens and to become full-fledged citizens of our country.

I receive photographs of the temporary accommodation points to which people are relocated. I suspect that the conditions in the basement in Selidovo were better than those of their current accommodation. When we begin to ask and contact various officials, it becomes clear that it is not even the republic or the region responsible for financing the temporary accommodation points in Russia; rather, it is the city. This is a frontline city with no financial resources. It cannot provide decent accommodation, not because the people there are heartless, but simply because they lack the means. However, this issue is probably not just a city problem, but a federal one. There are thousands of people who come to us.

At present, we know little about the refugees from Artyomovsk or Popasnaya, and only some details about Avdeyevka, likely because we lack an authority that is strictly responsible for refugees. Perhaps not a specific Ministry for Refugees, but a department within the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. Perhaps we could address this. We should consider the successful performance of the Defenders of Fatherland Foundation and the Centre for Unified Support for Military Personnel and Their Families, and create a similar centre for refugees. There will be thousands more, as we still have many liberated cities ahead of us. It is crucial that people who remained there to join the Russian world are not disappointed.

These include image-related points: when people regain an ability to communicate, they start calling their friends in Ukraine who have relocated there. The refugees in Ukraine have little to boast about either. We need to promote the idea that the Russian world welcomes its members hospitably, cordially, and sincerely, without engaging in bureaucratic football. People who have already endured several months of hardship are forced to navigate a maze of bureaucracy, running around offices to secure basic necessities, such as enrolling their children in school, finding housing, and re-registering cars from Ukrainian to Russian plates. I believe that if there were an organisation like the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, where these refugees could seek assistance, it would be very beneficial.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you for drawing our attention to this. I know that it is a big problem that cannot be settled easily. First of all, the situation with refugees looks much better in Russia than in Ukraine, where people who wish to enter the Russian Federation have to look for various roundabout ways through Türkiye and other countries. We are aware of and register this flow.

As for people from the front line who are living in poorly organised temporary accommodation facilities, we must look into this problem, and we will certainly do so. As for assigning it to the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation, I do not think that is appropriate. The Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation should take care of the defenders of the country, which it was set up to do.

However, the issue you have raised is clearly very important. We need people who want to live in Russia and are trying to implement their plans to live and to build a future for themselves and their children in Russia. We should certainly support such people, which is obvious. I will definitely draw our colleagues’ attention to this. We should probably consider assigning this task to organisations that are directly involved in such matters.

I would like to once again thank you for what you are doing. Your work has always been important, but it is even more important in the current situation.

One of the speakers has said that the goal of our work is to establish and strengthen a new world order. This is important, but it is not our goal. Our goal is to strengthen Russia, to defend it and to protect its future. We are working towards this end in a number of spheres.

Of course, the crucial events are taking place on the front line in the zone of the special military operation. However, in order to attain all its goals, the country must work effectively in all the spheres we discussed today. As I said, the contribution of NPOs and volunteers may be more important in some spheres of our common work than ever before in our history. Of course, there have been similar situations in our history, but our work is critically important now because our connection to the people, awareness of the situation in the country, and the search for more effective support instruments are of major importance. Our common work will hardly be effective without a caring attitude to the people, which no bureaucratic bodies but only organisations such as yours can provide, organisations where people do not work for a wage but out of the goodness of their hearts. I would like to thank you for this. We will do everything in our power to support you.

I wish you a happy upcoming New Year! Thank you.