February 16, 2023
48,732 people evacuated from danger to date
44 people evacuated from danger this week
14 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
Letter from the Editor:
It's been almost a year since the start of the full-scale invasion and we are trying to take stock of our teams’ accomplishments and operations. In one of the exercises we put just one week of UTC teams’ activities on a map you can see below. It is incredible how precisely volunteer networks focus on the areas of greatest need, canvassing the entire frontline and crisscrossing Ukraine’s territory with supply and evacuation routes, warehouses, shelters and invincibility points. These networks are both complex and cohesive, effective and nimble; each link powered by the tireless labor of Ukrainian volunteers.
I write this note on the train heading into Ukraine. Later this week I’m planning to meet with our teams in person in various cities of Ukraine. We will discuss practical matters, but we will also spend time together, strengthening the ties between the volunteers and the global community supporting them. If you have a comment or a question, if you would like to pass kind words of support to a specific team or all of UTC volunteers, please leave us a comment on our socials, fill out a form here, or include it as a comment with your donation. Whichever way you send it, I will make sure to deliver your message in person and pass the replies back to you.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Angelia - Mobile Clinic
The Kyiv-based clinic took its mobile operations to the city of Vasylkiv, which came under attack from Russian forces early in the war with street battles on the outskirts and in the city center. Angelia’s mobile services included family medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, ultrasound and EKG equipment, as well as equipment and specialists in gynecology, ENT, psychology, patient rehabilitation and neuropathology. In total, the clinic performed 320 services and saw 91 people.
Among the Vasylkiv patients were residents at a boarding school for children with hearing impairment. These children are in terrible health; they have a desperate need for ongoing services from a neurologist, psychologist and ENT specialist. The clinic plans to come back next week with its mobile medical center.
Andriy’s Team - BF Pomahaem
The work of Andriy’s team benefits many teams of Ukraine TrustChain. His team routinely advises other teams on best practices related to accounting and documentation. Pomahaem also has an extremely efficient warehouse that serves as a hub for large deliveries to multiple teams. Last week we began the distribution of a major generator delivery among the teams. Meanwhile a container of ready-to-eat meals arrived at the warehouse, thanks to our partnership with the World of Connections. An additional delivery of hundreds more generators are in transit also heading for Dnipro as we write this letter.
Andriy consolidated the two shelters his team had been operating since the first days of the war into one at his home base in Voloske. 54 people continue to live there.
Inna Kampen’s Team - Krok z Nadiyeyu
6 trips to deoccupied territories and danger zones
Inna’s team continued to push aid to Donbas, helping in Druzhkovka and Konstantynivka as the frontlines and bombardments unfortunately get closer.
In the Kherson region, the teams delivered aid to Berislav and opened up a new route to the village of Zmiivka that suffers from daily enemy artillery fire. 500 families still live there, and baby food was a much-needed item there.
Another notable project included 15 metric tons to the Kharkiv region and two trips to ravaged Nikopol focusing on immobile people assistance that includes adult diapers, food and hygienic products.
Inna also brought in a hairdresser into one of the Dnipro help centers to cut people’s hair for free.
Overall, last week Inna’s team helped 13,950 people delivering 50 metric tons of aid (almost 110,000 pounds), not including wood deliveries.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
Livyj Bereh continues to ramp up the efficiency and speed of roof repairs. 9 more houses were completed in the last week, and more than 40 coming up in the weeks ahead providing major relief in the Kharkiv region.
Unfortunately it has become more difficult to provide help to the villages at the very edge of Ukraine controlled territory of the Kharkiv region. Darya, a fearless Kharkiv volunteer we support through Kseniia, reported that the two villages she delivered the humanitarian aid to just two weeks ago are now back under Russian occupation.
Natasha’s Team - Vysnia Volunteer Center
Natalia is preparing her next trip, which is complicated new due to the unstable situation on the frontlines in the Luhansk region. While she was awaiting the right opportunity, Natalia made a trip to visit our other volunteer, Alena Prezibolska in Odesa delivering pallets of energy bars and other humanitarian aid, part of the massive aid delivery UTC helped organize a few weeks ago in partnership with World of Connections.
Karina’s Team — We Save Dnipro
Karina continues to focus her efforts on coordinating and supporting the efforts to help people trapped in the bloodiest battle zone of the war and helping clinics supporting these battle zones a few miles away. Her team evacuated 24 people, 2 dogs and a kitten from Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar.
Meanwhile her shelter housed 117 people. This heartwarming picture features two entrepreneur teenage girls from Karina’s shelter. They saved up money for these costumes and now support children through parties in Dnipro. This was a party for displaced kids currently living in the city.
Pavel’s Team - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
5,534 people were fed last week in the villages of Kyriyakivka, Bavovne, Velyka Korenyha, Pervomayske and the city of Mykolayiv.
Meanwhile Pavel’s car fleet, which evacuated more than 30,000 people during the course of the war, continues to perform multiple critical missions involving aid delivery and transportation. Last week they undertook 24 missions, some of which we describe below.
20 tons of flour were distributed to multiple nursing homes, hospitals and orphanages Pavel supports across Ukraine. 16 tons of firewood was delivered to the village of Novomykolayivka (Mykolayiv).
There is a growing trickle of evacuations. A group of 16 people, including 5 children, were moved from Zaporizhzhya to Romania. A mother and two children were evacuated from Kharkiv to the Polish border. The family was originally from Kupyansk, and survived the horror of Russian occupation but couldn’t find means to make it to Poland. Pavel’s team stepped in to help.
It is easy to forget that every person included in the count has a unique story, perhaps a unique tragedy playing out in their life. The story of one of the families that received help last week stands out in particular. A single mother of seven took one of her children to a Kyiv hospital for treatment, leaving 6 children with the grandfather. In the middle of the night a fire started near the wood stove, and the grandpa had to carry the children out one by one, receiving heavy burns. The house burned down, there was so much snow on the road that a fire truck couldn’t make it uphill and the children suffering from burns had to be brought down the hill on sleds to be taken for treatment.
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
This week the team, keeping their promise, returned to Kivsharivka, which is near the front line.
Earlier in the week there were 200 nearby deliveries and then another 200 to Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi. Then on Friday they delivered hygiene products, flashlights and blankets for over 500 people to Kivsharivka. Many of these people are elderly and have no other help.
During the delivery, they met the same three children as last week who were playing on a frozen playground. They played unfazed with artillery in the background.
Dina’s Team - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
This week Dina’s team distributed 812 packages of food through the organization’s distribution centers. Additionally 70 packages of hygienic products were mailed to people who had requested aid that are otherwise impossible to reach.
Once again, Sergey T and other volunteers from his church in Kharkiv traveled to Lyman and delivered 160 warm comforters, food packages, hygienic products, candles, and treats for children. Nearly every day the volunteers in Kharkiv hear explosions nearby, rattling the windows and shaking their apartment buildings, as the Russians continue to bomb the city. We certainly hold our breaths when our friends go on the missions closer to the front lines, but when they return home, we are not entirely relieved either.
In Kremenchuk, Yulia continues to bring joy to displaced children, handing out gifts to 12 children with February birthdays, supplying snacks and juice boxes to the art therapy group.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Pavlo V’s volunteers from Dnipro delivered a combined 4,500 kg of food and some diapers to Dobropillia, Druzhkivka, Kostyantynivka, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, and evacuated one person from Dobropillia to Mezhove. Kramatorsk, Slovyansk and Kostyantynivka are subjected to ever more frequent air raids now, sometimes with casualties. Water and utilities are often turned off. There is grief in these cities, but also gratitude for the aid.
Oleksandr Z’s NGO Zirka Nadiyi ("Star of Hope") in Lutsk, with help from Oksana K, continues its multi-pronged efforts to help children with special needs. This week, the organization donated athletic wear, backpacks and t-shirts to children with disabilities. Art therapy classes were conducted for children of internally displaced families and young people with disabilities. Targeted assistance was delivered to nine households, glasses were distributed to three people and 12 children were treated to a social cafe.
Sandra S’ kitchen in Odesa, with help from Yuriy S, fed more than 1,750 people this week, including bedridden patients. After receiving three tons of flour and some vegetable oil, the kitchen has also begun baking pastries for refugees who show up at the station during off hours when the kitchen isn’t serving meals.
In the last two weeks, our volunteer in an undisclosed occupied territory distributed 245 kits containing bread, salt, pasta, barley, sugar, lemons for the children, soap and toilet paper. Residents show up eagerly to gatherings where this aid is distributed and are very happy to receive it.
Vladyslav K’s team transported 24 tons of water to Mykolaiv. Six tons of food kits and other aid was also distributed to 400 people. Oksana K and her husband in Lutsk collected and sent diapers to displaced families and orphaned children in Zazymie and also sent food to Bakhmut.
Alena’s Team - Virgo Volunteer Center
This week Alena is in between trips, and in looking back at her last one, she asked if we could help some people in the liberated villages replace broken windows in their homes. Unfortunately, many of the people living in these small towns have lost their jobs and have no source of income. Their needs are small; they own their land and are surviving, but they can’t afford to repair their homes or replace the broken windows. There are 48 families asking for help and each window costs about $50. We started a Facebook fundraiser to help. Please consider supporting this initiative.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
This week Tetiana took a trip to Dnipro to pick up generators to distribute to orphanages and families with many kids in need around Smila. Her team distributed 97 aid packages in four villages around Smila: Holov'yatino, Zalevki, Stepanki and Hatc'ki. At the end of the distribution, an elderly man walked over, hugged Tetiana and said "I am grateful that you exist.”
Tetiana also distributed 40 aid packages to elderly residents and individuals with disabilities in Smila through the department of social services.
Good begets good, and so this week some of the people in the community donated a pig and firewood to Tetiana, saying that they know that Tetiana will distribute them where there is most need.
Marina’s Team - Give Good Ukraine
Starting this week, Marina's team has begun work on providing assistance for local senior citizens.
An extensive list of issues accompanies retirement during war time, including meager pensions, expensive and often unavailable medical treatment, and very high prices for food and utilities. So while Marina's team continued to provide usual help to internally displaced people across 4 communities this week, now they will also supply food and necessities to local elderly.
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.