January 4, 2024
58,430 people evacuated from danger to date
138 people evacuated from danger this week
30 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
We had hoped to focus this week’s newsletter around the ways our volunteer teams bring holiday joy to children and people suffering from war in Ukraine, but the holidays were marred by more attacks. Between December 29th and January 2nd, Ukraine suffered the most intense rocket and drone attacks in the history of this war. Russia hit the major cities of Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Kyiv, far away from the frontline, targeting mostly civilian infrastructure. Thanks to the exceptional performance of Ukraine’s air defense, most rockets were shot down. But a destroyed rocket does not evaporate. It simply fails to reach its target, falling like any other projectile and exploding in the residential areas below it.
During these attacks we try to spend time with our volunteers. As they take shelter, usually in the bathroom to have two walls shielding them from any shrapnel and debris, it is comforting to have a friend from safety speaking to them. From these conversations we get a glimpse into their experience — explosions of outgoing air defense shots and incoming enemy explosives, vehicle alarms scream, glass shatters. It is a scary and other-worldly feeling, mixed with a sense of helplessness. We wish we could stop these strikes from happening, yet all we can do is listen, bear witness, and send money to help.
Stories
Attacks on Dnipro
The attack on December 29th that killed 31 people hit Dnipro particularly hard, destroying a birth clinic and a shopping center in the city. The fire broke out in the centrally located birth clinic after the explosion. This attack felt especially personal - as many of the volunteers we support had friends who had given birth in the clinic. Within two hours, the teams of Anastasia, Karina, and Inna were already on the ground. Inna’s team set up a mobile help station that served food and hot tea to local residents, connected people to psychological services and distributed plastic and plywood to cover up windows. While the patients of the clinic took shelter and were evacuated to other hospitals, many homes nearby lost windows from the blast and required urgent help, as low temperatures are expected to set in this week.
Volunteers of Dobra Sprava and Karina’s teams also made it to the disaster site and offered assistance to elderly whose apartments sustained damage. They were able to cover the windows of 34 apartments and 5 buildings’ common areas with plywood and plastic. Karina’s shelter took in 6 families whose homes were damaged. Andriy’s team helped a refugee shelter nearby to cover blown up windows.
Attacks in Kherson and Kharkiv
Vladyslav, whose team delivers drinking water to Mykolaiv and Kherson, had a close call last week. After an event celebrating the upcoming New Year attended by 85 people at a prayer center in Kherson, a rocket exploded next door, destroying the neighbor's house, killing the neighbor, and shattering windows in the house of prayer.
Kharkiv was also heavily impacted in the rocket attacks. Timur, usually known by everyone for his big heart and smile, was somber. He lost someone he knew in this attack: a basketball player for the local team, who will be missed by his children and his friends.
At the time of the attack Timur was delivering firewood to a family with five children in a nearby village. The volunteers had previously met the family, which was fairly self-sufficient at the time. The grandfather would regularly bring firewood from the woods nearby. Tragedy struck when the grandfather was killed by a Russian mine; volunteers have stepped in to help.
Help in the Occupied Territories
320 families received help in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Trips to Deoccupied Territories
Several of our teams went into frontline zones so that the people still living there could get aid for the holiday. Natalia who reached Yampil, less than 3 miles away from enemy lines, reported a surreal feeling of a quiet, warm, sunny morning. That day, Yampil wasn’t shelled and in the few hours she spent there, Natalia felt a strange kind of peace despite the destruction she saw all around her.
Thanks to the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces the frontline hasn’t moved for a few months. We believe that this stability allowed Ukrainian volunteers to keep up more or less adequate supply into frontline zones avoiding a full-scale famine and humanitarian crisis. We are very grateful for your continued contributions which in large part have helped to sustain these civilians.
Ironically, upon her return from high-risk areas, Natalia ended up living through a major attack in Kyiv which we covered in the stories above.
Team Summaries
Ihor’s Team – Dobra Sprava (“Good Cause”)
13 trips; evacuated 137 people from Lyman, Mykolaiv, Kurakhovo, Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka, Druzhkivka, Pokrovsk, Toretsk, Kherson regions.
Inna’s Team – Krok z Nadiyeyu (“Step with Hope”)
23.0 tons distributed to 5,950 people in 39 destinations.
Bread was again distributed to 9,500 people.
Delivered firewood to 34 families in Borovaya near Izyum, Khotimlya, Chuhuiv and Chkalov.
Kherson operation:
Disinfected a large space.
Performed 22 maintenance tasks.
Performed extermination in 33 buildings.
Trips to Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, providing aid packages and gifts to children still living there.
Trips to Izyum and Nikopol, which still does not have running water.
The team set up a help station near the birth clinic destroyed in Dnipro last week.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): distributed more than 100 aid packages in the Kyiv Region.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): transported 7 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 700 people.
Yuri S (Vinnytsia): took 2 people with disabilities and 400 kg of clothes to a boarding school in Plyskiv (Vinnytsia Region).
Oleksandr D (Lutsk): delivered 93.5 tons of fuel briquettes to 187 vulnerable households in the Kherson Region villages of Komyshany and Zymivnyk.
NGO “Rokada” Volyn (Lutsk): organized holiday parties with gifts for 78 internally displaced (IDP) children in the Volyn Region cities of Novovolynsk and Volodymyr.
Oksana K (Lutsk): delivered 1.5 tons of humanitarian aid to Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Druzhkivka in the Donetsk Region. Mailed 2 aid packages containing food, hygiene products, and shoes.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): Held 4 art therapy sessions for 77 children with disabilities, and children from military families. Helped 186 people with gifts, diapers, hygiene products, food, clothes, shoes and electric fireplaces. Hosted events for children from military families.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh (“Left Bank”)
4 more roofs completed in Slatyne, Cupivka and Prudianka.
Svitlana distributed 142 packages to in Kherson and nearby Fedorivka.
150 children received gifts in Kherson and Dariivka.
Karina’s Team - We Save Dnipro
73 people in shelter.
Sent gifts to 80 children in Kherson.
Purchased 280 sheets of plywood and 9 rolls of plastic film to cover blown out windows in Dnipro.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
Delivered building materials to repair damage from rocket strikes that severely damaged several streets in Smila.
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
Delivered firewood to several families in need.
Brought 180 aid packages to Tishky.
Delivered 150 hygiene packages to Kupyansk.
Distributed 150 food packages in Saltivka, Kharkiv.
Pavel and Olena’s Team - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
978 families received help from the Mykolaiv office of the team.
The Baptist church donated 28 tons of firewood that Pavel’s team delivered to 64 families living in Novohryhorivka.
Andriy’s Team – BF Pomahaem
Covered up windows in a local shelter that lost windows during the attack.
200 children received gifts for children.
Team is preparing emergency kits for the Kherson region after receiving requests for fire extinguishers.
Natalia - Vyshnia Volunteer Center
Natalia traveled to Yampil, delivering 250 food packages, candles and batteries.
Tetiana from the Kryviy Rih branch of the team delivered 91 packages to Tverdomedove and 91 to Kniazivka.
90 children in these Kherson area villages received gifts.
Marina’s Team – Good Give Ukraine
Sent 50 aid packages all over Ukraine for families who suffered from war.
Distributed 100 food and hygiene sets in Piatykhatky.
Dina’s Team -- Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina (“Free People - Free Country”)
Distributed 380 aid packages.
Mailed 100 aid packages.
In Kremenchuk 195 children received holiday presents.
Sergey T delivered 457 packages and children’s sweet treats to the towns of Levkivka, Ivanivka, Zabavne, Kramarivka, Glinske, Pymonivka, Iskra, Babenkove, Fedorivka, Bryhadyrivka, Oskil.
Anastasia’s Team - LoveUA
Delivered 283 packages and 127 children’s gifts to Selydove, Mykhailivka, and Memryk.
Alena’s Team – Virgo
Finished the installation of new windows in 17 homes in Zasillya helping approximately 50 people.
Delivered gifts to 315 children (50 in Odesa, 217 in Shmidtove, Tsentral'ne, Vavylove, Znamianka, 48 in Antonovka).
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.