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Hesed Clients in Ukraine Get Freedom of Choice with New Smart Card
Lina, a cheerful 67-year-old living in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, is particularly joyful today. Pushing her shopping cart through the aisles of the local grocery store, she thoughtfully adds some fruit, a bit of meat and other goods to her selection. "I feel happy and proud to have the choice of what to eat," exclaims Lina, one of the first clients of the local JDC-sponsored Hesed welfare center to use her Smart Card to purchase groceries.
The Smart Card program, which by the end of February will be made available to more than 4,000 Jewish elderly Hesed clients in Dnepropetrovsk, is being piloted to upgrade part of Center’s traditional food program — monthly food package deliveries. "The main goal of the Smart Card Program is to provide freedom of choice and a sense of dignity to the client," explains Aida, a local Hesed volunteer. "The client is free to select products according to his/her preferences and to pay with a plastic card at the cash register." According to each client’s eligibility and Hesed’s food programs budget, the welfare center transfers funds to the client’s card. The card becomes activated as soon as the client makes his/her deposit in the amount of the fee-for-service. Throughout its history in Eastern Ukraine, JDC has sought to enhance the quality of life for vulnerable Jewish populations. "We are always developing innovative model programs and looking for solutions that are relevant to the current situation," Aida offers. 
In fact, Hesed Menachem is the first among JDC’s 174-Center social welfare network throughout the FSU to introduce the Smart Card Program. "There are many advantages to the program, both in attitude towards the client and efficiency," Aida explains. It fosters a respectful attitude towards the client and diminishes the emphasis on his/her financial dependence on the Hesed services. "We have noticed that freedom of choice is a big thing — food packages included 14 types of products, whereas our initial reports indicate that Smart Card clients purchased over 930 kinds!" A wide supermarket network makes the shopping experience accessible and convenient for clients, and enables them to purchase the precisely the portions that they need, guaranteeing the food’s freshness. The process is also efficient for Hesed because the Center saves on the purchase, storage, transportation and delivery of food, which was inherent to the package system. The new program has been very well received by the elderly clients, nearly all of whom struggle to survive on meager monthly pensions that have become eroded since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and depend on Hesed assistance to live out their lives in dignity. February 2006 |
