August 17, 2022

579 evacuations this week

Last week we surpassed a total of 40,000 evacuations.

Ukraine Team Milestones

In the early part of the week, Kseniia had to go through the last gyrations of vacating the space of Kyiv Tsvit Proekt - where she assembled, inspired and led the volunteer team that saved lives and provided help to thousands of people. Despite the pain of losing this space, Kseniia did not take a lot of time to rest.
Thanks to your donations, her team Livyj Berih was able to source roofing materials for the village of Zahaltsy where the work began to reconstruct multiple roofs for the elderly in the village whose homes were damaged by enemy shelling. In the meantime, the work on the village of Kuhari was finished with 15 homes restored.

Meanwhile she continued to support groups providing help in the occupied territories and Kharkiv, where bombardments have become especially vicious in the past two weeks.
Her team went on a scouting trip in Kyiv and the Chernihiv area finding two schools that still needed support to reopen in time for September 1st - the first day of school in Ukraine.

By Friday Pavel’s team had evacuated 445 people from Kharkov, Mykolayiv, Vinnitsa, and Zaporizhzhia extending the trend of increasing evacuation flow due to intensifying bombardment.

Pavel was harder to reach in the last couple of days as he is heading on a mission to the East. We know that mid week, 6 vans delivered more than 3,500 large aid packages into the bombardment areas between Mykolayiv and Kherson, where the local population is in desperate need and afraid to evacuate due to intense bombardments.

Andriy Pinchuk’s group has had to resume evacuations that have been paused for several weeks. This week he evacuated 49 people from Marhanets - a town across the river from the Zaporizhzhia that is being mercilessly shelled by Russian artillery hiding in the shadow of the nuclear reactor.

People were evacuated to Andriy’s shelters which have reached a historic high — housing 222 people. His warehouse brought in 11 tons of aid and volunteers distributed this aid to hundreds of refugee families. At the time of writing this report we could not confirm the exact number.

Andriy’s warehouse has also provided major help to other teams and organizations. Earlier in the week, Ukraine Trustchain facilitated the delivery of more than 1,600 boxes of medical equipment. Andriy’s team agreed to house this cargo. Dina Tkachenko’s group was in the process of filling in the initial urgent request for Dnipro hospitals. Dina has been working non-stop with American volunteers translating the shipment list and reorganizing the cargo to prepare it for broader distribution.

On top of this effort, Dina Tkachenko’s group distributed 2,046 family aid packages. During the week we were able to support delivery of about 50 blankets to Dina’s group. Bringing this up in channels where refugees sign up for support has exposed an enormous demand for blankets that remains unmet and this need will only augment as the temperature drops after the summer.

Dina’s team also facilitated an especially challenging mission to provide help to a birth clinic that specializes in caring for the infants abandoned by parents at birth.

Inna Kampen’s group distributed 26.2 tons of aid to 8,900 families last week. As we pushed for detailed reports, we realized that Inna was going through a deep personal tragedy and couldn’t ask for additional reporting. In spite of her personal suffering, her organization keeps functioning Like Andriy Pinchuk, Inna’s charity found ways to push aid into the new areas of bombardment in Nikopol and Marhanets.

Karina’s team evacuated 76 people last week. The number was down from 167 people in the previous week due to car breakdowns. While some people were evacuated from Nikopol, Karina’s teams focused on Bahmut and the surrounding areas in Eastern Ukraine. Karina continues to support a shelter housing 105 people.

Karina’s team is also finding ways to pass humanitarian aid to people surviving in the bomb shelters in the occupied territories in Eastern Ukraine.
Oleksandr Davydiuk continued supporting key initiatives across Ukraine. 30 tons of drinking water were being delivered weekly by Vladyslav’s group. The mobile clinic of another team traveled to Irpin’, providing help to 82 patients. Despite all odds we continue to find ways to provide aid in the occupied territories, helping 48 people in Kherson. More details should be available next week about our efforts to help Nova Kahovka.

Another project we support through Oleksandr Davydiuk that is near and dear to his heart is a charity “Star of Hope” (Zirka Nadiyi). This organization focuses on working with the children from refugee families in Lutsk. A refugee camp in Lutsk has housed more than 6,000 people over the last 5 months, and Oleksandr Zhalovaga pours his soul into helping kids cope with their difficult situations by providing art therapy, music therapy and field trips for children from the shelter.

*Zirka Nadiyi* takes displaced children whose lives have been upturned by war on trips to offer some joy and normal childhood.

Timur’s team delivered 340 packages of aid around Kharkiv and Saltivka. We have also delivered boxes of surgical gowns as well as 2 wheelchairs sourced from Poland to hospital #5 in Kharkiv. The team also received aid from Bird of Light and reserved this aid for the most vulnerable.

The inside of a home located on the outskirts of Kyiv

US Team Milestones

This week Ukraine TrustChain made a decision to once again distribute small $300-$500 grants specifically to the volunteers that continue to work full-time on our volunteer teams without earning any personal income. Last time we approved such payments in late May. The teams that have not been providing minimal funds to their volunteers (and some do so as part of their regular operations) continue to see departures of volunteers. The exception to this rule is perhaps the group of Inna Kampen that provides a platform for displaced people to dedicate themselves in helping others in similar situations. We hope that we can continue to rely on the support of our donors to help sustain these selfless, heroic volunteers. The small funds that we directed to vetted key team members grows the bond of gratitude between all of us who care about Ukraine and who want to support those who have done the most to help Ukraine fight this barbaric invasion.
Last week we facilitated a number of deliveries to Ukraine. On some of these we covered a portion of transportation. These operations began with 20 ton delivery to Rotary Club of Kharkiv.
On Tuesday teams in Ukraine received a massive shipment of 1,600 boxes of medical equipment and supplies delivered by our Polish partner BeaHeroUA. This aid will help multiple hospitals and save countless lives.
We learned that Jetlag Festival - the largest immigrant fest — in the US has chosen Ukraine TrustChain as one of the recipients of its charitable funds, donating $5,367 to Ukraine TrustChain.
Ukraine TrustChain, together with Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan and Angels of Freedom, is sponsoring a Michigan-wide Walk-a-Thon to raise funds for Chernihiv schools.

How to Help

Donate - The money goes directly to teams providing aid on the ground, who respond dynamically to the most urgent needs.
Fundraise - Organize fundraisers at your school, work, place of worship, with friends and family, etc.
Spread the word - Share our website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn with your friends, family, and colleagues.
Fill out this form if you’re interested in volunteering with us, and we’ll let you know when opportunities come up.
Download and print our flyer. Ask your local coffee shop if you can add it to the bulletin, or use it as part of your fundraiser.

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August 24, 2022

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