Projects The six billion schillings (436 million euros) entrusted to the Austrian Fund for Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation (sometimes abbreviated to "Reconciliation Fund") by the Austrian Government, provinces, municipalities and industry was administered and used with the greatest of care. All the Fund's activities were governed by the principle of doing as much as possible to accommodate the victims while incurring minimum administrative costs. The Reconciliation Fund attached great importance to a simple and modest presentation of itself and its work. Representation and advertising were kept to an absolute minimum and the Fund even refrained from having its own logo. As a result, the income from the interest on the capital significantly exceeded expenditure on personnel and equipment. The "enterprise Reconciliation Fund" therefore cut a good figure even according to purely business criteria. The law establishing the Reconciliation Fund stipulated that any surplus capital had to be used to benefit the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship. The most efficient solution was to organize medical and humanitarian projects for the poorest of the surviving victims, those living in the countries of Eastern Europe. With a range of measures tailored to meet specific individual needs, including treatment at spas and nursing homes, operations at local hospitals, the purchase of medical equipment for home use as well as one-time payments to help cover basic needs such as heating material or clothing, Austria was able to provide perceptible relief to the elderly victims of forced labor at the end of their lives Country Total number of benefits granted in medical and humanitarian assistance Belarus 4.287 Poland 23.084 Russian Federation 11.347 Czech Republic 12.075 Ukraine 39.092 Hungary 2.510 As of September 1, 2005 The high level of trust in the efficient and personal work of the Reconciliation Fund led to the initiation of additional projects that went beyond the mandate of the Reconciliation Fund under the terms of the law. Platform Humanitarian Action collected a total of 261 wheelchairs that were given to needy survivors of the Nazi regime in Eastern Europe. Austrian Railways was particularly accommodating when it came to transporting them from all over Austria. Dedicated doctors from the Austrian Society for Orthopedic Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery carried out a total of 36 hip and knee operations throughout the country for former forced laborers from Eastern Europe free of charge, saving some of them from spending the rest of their lives in a wheelchair. Austrian Airlines also made the Reconciliation Fund a generous offer to ensure that the patients were able to travel in comfort. Throughout the period of the Reconciliation Fund's existence, and not just while the humanitarian projects were being carried out, there were moving encounters with former forced laborers. In this manner the Reconciliation Fund became a crystallization point for remembrance and practiced solidarity.