The BRICS+ Commission on Value-Based Humanitarian Cooperation and Interfaith Dialogue has launched a humanitarian project to help refugee children in Uganda, Dmitry Kuznetsov, one of the commission's founders and a member of the Russian Parliament, told Sputnik Africa.
The deputy noted that the volunteers visited an official refugee camp and a spontaneously built refugee village and brought food, sugar and soap for the displaced people.
Schools and children's hospitals need volunteer teachers and doctors, he said, adding that doctors from the commission and other Russian humanitarian headquarters would begin working in Uganda in a few days.
"In this way, we can not only participate in solving a specific, really important world problem but also demonstrate real Russian soft power," Kuznetsov opined.
The deputy added that volunteers from all BRICS countries and beyond are needed to help refugee children in Uganda, noting that "there are people in unfriendly countries who are for peace and cooperation."
The refugee assistance program was initiated by the BRICS+ Commission in cooperation with the World Christian Association of Parliamentarians and Russian MP and author Zakhar Prilepin's International Humanitarian Headquarters.
The World Christian Association of Parliamentarians unites current and former parliament representatives to promote Christian values across confessions, support peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts, and facilitate interreligious and cross-cultural dialogue.
Among its founder members are parliamentarians from countries such as Russia, Uganda, Ghana, the DR Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Germany.
At the end of February, a conference of the BRICS+ Commission on Value-Based Humanitarian Cooperation and Interfaith Dialogue was held in Moscow. Its organizers and participants, including representatives from Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Cameroon, Brazil, Germany, Austria, France and Russia, signed a memorandum on the goals and objectives of further work.