On 1 March, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Riga Castle to discuss their experience in providing support to people in Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in Latvia. President of Latvia thanked civic society representatives for their activism and progress in such a short time. ‘The progress that Latvian non-governmental sector has achieved in a couple of days is really impressive. It is indicative of the true sense of mission, high professional standards, unity and good governance these organisations have,’ President Levits said.
NGOs noted that Latvian residents are very keen to offer help and it is important to ensure proper coordination of these efforts. That is why a dedicated platform, palidziukrainai.lv, has been created to coordinate the humanitarian aid and civil assistance activities rolled out since the start of the invasion. Charity organisation ‘ziedot.lv’ has been coordinating a special programme for financial assistance to people in Ukraine. Latvian population has already donated the total of 3.5 million euro to help Ukraine.
President of Latvia thanked everyone in Latvia who has decided to help Ukrainian people. ‘Solidarity with Ukraine is particularly important. Ukrainians are currently fighting for our values, the European values. I want to thank each and every one here in Latvia! It is really moving to see so many people contribute to the cause!’ Egils Levits said.
President of Latvia met with Rūta Dimanta from ‘ziedot.lv’, Elita Kresse from Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, Egils Grasmanis and Agnese Lāce from movement ‘Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem/Want to help refugees’, Inese Vaivare from movement ‘Viegli palīdzēt/Helping is easy’, Andris Bērziņš, Director of Samaritan Association of Latvia, and Kristīne Zonberga, Director of Civic Alliance- Latvia.
