December 26th, 2024
66,358 people evacuated from danger to date
105 people evacuated from danger this week
40 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Thanks to your support, we’ve now raised $40,300 – about 62% of our $65,000 match drive goal. Every contribution by a returning donor (matched at 100%) or a new donor (matched at 200%) directly helps with critical evacuations and humanitarian aid in Ukraine right now. We’d also like to extend a warm welcome to new supporters, including those who found us through a recent article by Trudy Rubin in the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as others who have joined us through various other channels. We can still double or triple the impact of your donation, so please continue to share this opportunity with your network to help us reach our goal!
Stories
New Windows in Pravdyne
Because of the efforts of Alena’s team Diva, 83 homes in the village of Pravdyne in the Kherson Region finally received new windows to replace ones that were destroyed in shelling attacks. For nearly three years families with small children and the elderly lived in homes with shattered or boarded up windows. The crew that came out to install the new windows got a taste of the daily ordeals of the locals when the crew members themselves stayed in a house with wrecked windows for a week. This experience left them baffled at how the local people had managed to live this way for so long.
Firewood Deliveries Continue
Two teams continued firewood deliveries last week, distributing more than 250 tons to frontline towns. Due to icy conditions near Kramatorsk, one of the delivery trucks skidded off the road. Fortunately, thanks to the quick response by the local military administration, the truck was towed back to the road and the distribution took place as planned.
Deliveries to Lyman were particularly difficult. Twice the distributions were postponed at the last minute due to shelling and the trucks needed to hide and wait for the all clear behind the river crossing. In the end, however, both distributions were completed and local residents received their fuel briquettes.
Christmas Celebrations
As in the previous two years, Christmas is an especially busy time for our volunteers. In addition to all the missions described in this newsletter, many of our teams were busy preparing for the holiday celebrations that took place as we compiled this report. Celebrating Christmas in December has a special significance in Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church traditionally celebrates Christmas on January 7th. The new tradition of celebrating Christmas on December 25th is yet another step in aligning Ukraine with the West and cutting ties with Russia.
On this day, volunteers focus on children, organizing holidays for them, preparing gifts, and often putting on costumes to make the day more memorable. We will be reporting on these holidays next week. Meanwhile, we want to thank you for your generosity in the lead-up to the holidays. Your support allows UTC teams to pass on the gift of celebration to others.
Pomahaem’s Trip to Bashtanka Village
Many of our teams spend considerable efforts in providing communities with drinking water, heating fuel and vegetables. The following mission report from our Dnipro Pomahaem team provides an example of why this aid is so important, in this case for communities around Mykolaiv:
On December 16, our team visited Novoserhiivka in the Bashtanka District of the Mykolaiv Region. The district is considered a frontline area.
Some villages here have water supplied from the city (which is very expensive), while others have to bring water themselves from local sources. Because of this, people don’t even plant gardens – there’s no way to water them. Instead they must buy vegetables at very high prices, like everyone else.
There is no gas in the villages, so heating is done with firewood. Electricity has also been frequently shut off lately, as has been the case everywhere.
There are many families with children and many people with disabilities. Many of them came for humanitarian aid from neighboring villages, with several families pooling money to hire a vehicle. Hiring a vehicle costs a lot of money because the roads are terrible. But when several families chip in, it becomes more affordable.
We brought them hygiene and winter kits from World Vision International. The winter kits include a gas burner with 10 cartridges, a blanket, and a thermos.
Customizing Aid in Donbas
We are grateful to our Ukrainian partners for their continued attention to every detail involved in providing aid. Every week volunteers review the contents of the aid packages and make the necessary adjustments. While these details might seem trivial, they are the foundation of our trust, and we love to hear the volunteers’ thoughts on what aid is most appropriate in a specific place and time. Here is an excerpt from last week’s report regarding help to the Donbas village of Bohorodychne:
Not a single house is whole here, not a single one… What do people need here? First of all they need attention; second, to feel that they are not alone; third, humanitarian aid, hygiene products, and food. But the food they need is somewhat nonstandard. Lyman is close by, and, because of the battle there, the electricity often goes out. If the electricity goes out, the water goes out as well. As a result, you can’t bring the usual cereals, pasta etc. here. You need to bring canned food or ready to eat meals that people can prepare by quickly mixing them with hot water as soon as it appears.
Help in Occupied Territories
240 packages were distributed in two occupied cities.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
15 trips, evacuating 97 people from Pokrovsk, Kurakhovo, Kostyantynivka, and Lyman areas.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
Aid was delivered to 38 locations in Ukraine. 8050 people received help plus 6600 received bread.
Help was provided in Kherson, 7 Donbas towns, Izyum and Balakliya, 10 high risk locations.
67 tons of firewood delivered to 48 families.
Kherson operations:
Disinfected/sanitized 4 bomb shelters and 16 basement spaces.
Provided targeted aid to 7 people.
Teams in Nikopol and Donbas continued to offer free optometry services and distributed free glasses.
Angelia Charitable Fund
Volunteer Volodymyr A traveled to Munich, Hildesheim, Lüneburg, and Adendorf (Germany), bringing back 952 kg of used clothes, shoes, dishes, a freezer, EcoFlow portable power station, and toilets for the disabled.
On the way to Germany, Volodymyr made another delivery of medical scrubs to Chernivtsi for distribution to the local community.
Brought aid to Kropyvnytskyi (Kirovohrad Region), Uman (Cherkasy Region), and the Mykolaiv Region.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 7 tons to Kherson.
Andriy P (Mykolaiv): brought 2 minibusses from Germany, loaded with 2 tons of aid, including 50 wheels, 20 cans of engine oil, a refrigerator, 20 boxes of medicine, 10 boxes of diapers for adults, 30 bags and 10 boxes of clothes and shoes, 80 boxes of Christmas gifts, and some wheelchairs. Mailed 40 Christmas gifts to different parts of Ukraine and are transporting another 40 gift to Kherson. Issued 1 wheelchair to a hospital in Kropyvnytskyi, where there are amputees.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 1,000 people and distributed some energy bars to large families.
WeCare Center (Lviv): received an 8-ton truck loaded with aid in our main warehouse in Boryslav. Contents of the truck included clothes, shoes, winter jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and other items. (During the cold season, we are focused on providing people with warm clothing). Aid was unloaded and prepared for further distribution.
Pavlo B (Zaporizhzhia): began providing assistance to 30 people who lost their homes. This made the children happy. Made gifts for the New Year holidays for children from combat zones and occupied territories.
Vitaliy Z (Kharkiv): delivered 3.5 tons of humanitarian kits, clothes, medicine, and animal feed to the village of Malotaranivka (Kramatorsk District, Donetsk Region). Only old people who are unable to leave remain in this village. Evacuation for people and animals was proposed. Brought 2 tons of aid to the Lyman direction. Delivered 202.5 tons of fuel briquettes to 675 households in Kramatorsk, Balakliia, and Lyman.
Oleksandr D (Lutsk): sent 200 kg of food and sweets and 200 kg of power bars and muesli to our distribution point in Kherson, to be distributed to children there. Another 200 kg of power bars and muesli was sent to Serhiy A for distribution to the blind.
Oksana K (Lutsk): helped 2 families with diapers and bed linen. Brought baby boxes and instant soups from Pruszków and Otwock (Poland). Supported a family from Kramatorsk whose child has delayed cognitive development. Distributed clothes to internally displaced people (IDPs). Collected 500-700 kg. of diapers for a boarding school for disabled children in Znam’yanka (Kirovohrad Region). Distributed diapers in Kivertsi.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to IDP children and adults, children with disabilities, children from large families and wounded military personnel in recovery. Held 3 art therapy sessions, for a total of 63 children. Organized a celebration for 48 children, with a puppet show and gifts.. Visited the theater and museum with 18 military personnel undergoing rehabilitation and 56 IDPs. Helped 240 IDPs and 60 children and young adult students with bread and other food. Continued to conduct examinations and physiotherapy procedures (80 total) for IDPs who suffered from the war and bombings in Donetsk and Kherson regions and preventive procedures for the recovery of children from the Donetsk region (20 total).
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
Darya evacuated 7 people from 3 villages near Kup’yan’sk.
Due to the deteriorated river crossing, the volunteers walked the evacuees across, and only then were able to load them into cars.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
157 people in the shelter.
Tetiana’s Team – Dopomoha poruch (Help Is Near)
Distributed 150 aid packages in Zaporizhzhia to old and disabled people.
Distributed 95 packages with sweets to kids in Smila for the holidays.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Preparing for two trips: report next week.
Timur’s Team — Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
The team distributed aid to 315 families in Kharkiv.
Special deliveries to 15 families with babies and 8 disabled elderly.
Evacuated an 87 year-old woman who is almost completely deaf.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams — Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
180 packages distributed in Kyselivka.
532 families received vegetables in Novopavlivka (42 families), Kobzartsi (200), Kyselivka (180) and Partyzanske (100).
Held weekly activities for children.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
436 packages delivered to Marhanets’, Bilen’ke, near Zaporizhzhia, and Novoserhiivka, near Mykolaiv.
On Zaporizhzhia trips the team collaborated with an attorney and a therapist who were able to provide additional assistance to people coming to receive aid.
24 tons of water delivered to Nikopol.
241 people vetted for cash-aid grants.
Marina’s Team — Daruy dobro Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages distributed to internally displaced individuals in Pyatikhatki.
Dina’s Team — Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 365 packages in Kremenchuk, Poltava, and Kanev.
Distributed 75 sweet treat gift bags to displaced kids in Dnipro and 56 in Kanev.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
43 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
This week children continued to have Christmas activities. They learned how to make and decorate a gingerbread, had a visit from St. Nicholas, and received gifts.
Alena’s Team – Diva (Virgo)
83 homes in Pravdyne received new windows to replace ones that were destroyed.
Anastasia’s Team - LoveUA
Held a holiday celebration for the children of Druzhkivka; handed out 100 packages of aid, 100 sweet gifts, and 100 gingerbread cookies.
How to Help
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