December 19th, 2024
66,253 people evacuated from danger to date
101 people evacuated from danger this week
41 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
This week we’re happy to share an update on our match drive, and so grateful for the incredible generosity of our community! Thanks to your support, we’ve already raised $13,500 — about 21% of our $65,000 goal. Every donation, whether from a prior donor (matched at 100%) or a new donor (matched at 200%), is making a tangible impact on the critical evacuations and humanitarian aid in Ukraine. There’s still time to double or triple the impact of your contribution, so please continue sharing this opportunity with your network and help us reach our goal.
Stories
Deteriorating Situation in Donbas
The situation at the front continues to deteriorate steadily as the enemy slowly advances in the Donbas. The terrible truth behind this phrase remains a constant, like the steady progress of a deadly disease. Things are getting worse, but there isn’t much new to be said about it.
The enemy is entering cities where our volunteers have done so much work. Toretsk, Kurakhove, Pokrovsk. Other cities are subject to daily shelling. Druzhkivka was shelled last week and the water pump was damaged. The city is now without water. Inna’s team brought in firewood and building materials to cover up the windows and keep people warm. Anastasia is heading there as well, to organize a holiday celebration for the children who remain in Druzhkivka due to the stubbornness of their parents. Vitaliy is also distributing firewood in the area.
The road around Pokrovsk was blocked this week. Other roads are so degraded that every trip over them involves getting stuck and being pulled out by passing military vehicles — this happened to two teams last week. It takes a special kind of discipline to respond to the ongoing, ordinary challenges under these conditions, but our teams press on.
Volunteers Receive Holiday Support Payments
Earlier this week the UTC board approved modest support payments that have been distributed to our volunteer teams in Ukraine ahead of the holidays. These payments, ranging from $100 to $150, went to the team leaders and those who volunteer with them on a regular basis. Hundreds of other people help out from time to time, or provide support locally when aid is delivered to their village, but it was not feasible to reach all of the branching connections our network has within Ukraine.
Although we’ve had a long tradition of providing such support to our volunteers, the decision is always a difficult one, as these funds cannot be directly attached to a specific evacuation or aid delivery effort. Yet we believe such help is critically important and embodies the very core of our mission to uphold and celebrate the Ukrainian volunteer movement. Wartime volunteering is dangerous and exhausting work. Burnout is common. Our Ukrainian volunteers see the undisputable significance of what they do, but often feel that they must support others without seeking support themselves. We are incredibly grateful that your generous donations and trust allow us to provide such support to our volunteers, making their life-saving work more sustainable.
Help in Occupied Territories
We lost contact with our groups in the occupied territories last week. We will update you as we get more information.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
14 trips, evacuating 94 people from Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka, and Lyman areas.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
22.2 tons of aid distributed.
8,250 people received aid packages and 6,600 received bread.
Aid delivered to 36 towns and villages, including Kherson and 4 frontline villages in the Kherson Region, 5 Donbas locations, Nikopol and Marhanets’. (11 high-risk trips total).
Kherson efforts:
Exterminations in 19 buildings including 10 large basements.
Dehumidified a bomb shelter.
30.7 tons of firewood delivered to 22 high-need families in besieged Druzhkivka.
Angelia Charitable Fund
Received 3 pallets (1,200 kg) of fruit bars from a charity in Bila Tserkva for further distribution.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): distributed food and clothing to about 50 internally displaced (IDP) families in Tetiiv (Kyiv Region). Delivered 32 packages of reusable diapers to IDPs from border settlements now in Sumy, 1 pallet of clothing to 30 families in the Sumy border town of Buryn, and 1,400 kg of food kits to the border town of Seredyna-Buda. Delivered food to a family in which a grandmother is raising two grandchildren alone because the father died in Mariupol and the mother was a soldier who died in November.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 7 tons to Kherson.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 1,000 people. Also sent some energy bars to a boarding school for children with hearing and vocal impairments.
Yuri S (Vinnytsia): brought 100 kg of clothing and cereal grains to Mykolaiv and 100 kg of clothing to the Harmony rehabilitation center in Vinnytsia. Helped disabled people and an IDP woman apply for documents. Took a disabled person to the bank and twice to social rehabilitation.
WeCare Center (Lviv): brought gifts for children (22 tons) from Dortmund (Germany) to Boryslav in preparation for distributing these to children during the holiday season.
Vitaliy Z (Kharkiv): delivered 3.5 tons of humanitarian kits, clothes, medicine, and animal feed to the village of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka (Donetsk Region). Much of the village is in ruins. People are living in the basements of the remaining houses. Also brought 2 tons of aid to Kostyantynivka. Delivered 247.5 tons of fuel briquettes to 825 households in Kramatorsk, Balakliia, and Lyman.
Oleksandr D (Lutsk): received 3 tons of sweets from partners in Germany. 6 pallets of these were sent East for further distribution and 2 pallets were distributed in Volyn and Lutsk.
Oksana K (Lutsk): distributed clothes and diapers to adults who have disabled or seriously ill or bedridden people in their families. Sent a package of food and hygiene products to a family from Kramatorsk. Provided a walker to a family with an elderly sick mother.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to IDP children and adults, and to children with disabilities.
Held 2 art therapy sessions, for a total of 40 children and adults.
Visited Adrenaline City in Lutsk, as well as a museum and the theater with 176 IDPs.
Helped 240 IDPs and 60 children and young adult students with bread and other food.
Provided 70 physical therapy and wellness sessions for IDPs and others suffering from the stress of war. Also conducted 10 preventative children’s health procedures.
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
0.5 tons of aid delivered to 2 UTC-supported hospices in Kharkiv, which care for 70 elderly people.
164 packages delivered to 6 frontline villages in the Kharkiv Region: Kindrashivka, Kut’kivka, Kasyanivka, Stets’kivka, Purnykove, and Dovhen’ke.
Darya evacuated 4 people from Kut’kivka, and 2 from Monachynivka.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
157 people in the shelter.
Tetiana’s Team – Dopomoha poruch (Help Is Near)
Delivered 220 aid packages to the village of Starovirivka, near Kup’yans’k, Kharkiv Region.
Distributed 130 packages in Smila. These packages contained sweets for disabled kids and kids that lost one or both parents due to the war.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Delivered 210 packages to Zarichne village in Donbas.
Provided aid to 4 invincibility points (heated bomb shelters) in Lyman, Tor’ske and Zarichne.
Timur’s Team — Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
Delivered aid to 418 people in Saltivka, Kharkiv.
Evacuated the last several people from a small village where it was no longer safe to stay.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams — Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
110 packages delivered to Partyzanske.
Delivered 186 packages of vegetables to Kvitneve and Zasillya and to 50 additional families with disabled children.
Continue to organize weekly classes for children in Mykolaiv.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
235 packages delivered to Hontarivka, near Kharkiv.
200 packages delivered to Liubomyrivka, near Mykolaiv.
16 tons of water delivered to Nikopol.
327 people vetted for cash grants, mostly in villages around Kryvyi Rih.
Marina’s Team — Daruy dobro Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages distributed to internally displaced individuals in Zhovti Vody.
Dina’s Team — Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 1,025 packages in Kremenchuk, Krasnokuts’k, Poltava, Kanev, and Dnipro.
Mailed out 100 packages from Dnipro.
Distributed 325 packages of holiday treats to children in Dnipro.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
43 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
Club for children with disabilities was held by candlelight again.
The children continued to have Christmas activities: visited a play and had a celebration at the children's center.
Alena’s Team – Diva (Virgo)
Liza and Katya helped 19 wounded in Odesa hospitals.
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.