September 28, 2023
56,129 people evacuated from danger to date
185 people evacuated from danger this week
40 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
Perhaps the most noticeable development last week was the sudden intensification of enemy attacks on the right bank of Dnipro in the Kherson region. Putting these reports together from different sources highlighted how much of our teams’ work is concentrated in this area.
Building residents asked our Kherson team to move the equipment away fearing shelling will damage it. Three teams that were planning to deliver aid last week to the village along the river bank were only able to complete a fraction of planned deliveries and postponed all equipment deliveries until a more opportune moment. Yet the volunteers do not stop and take on new projects. Andriy’s team connected with people who fled the bombardment area temporarily, and is working on bringing cots and mattresses to them as we write this. Inna’s team still managed to make regular deliveries to Berislav and Davydiv Brid despite the area’s being on lockdown. They mentioned that local police who know them from previous trips instruct all cars to keep moving because any stopped vehicle could be spotted by enemy drones flying over Berislav and become a target increasing risk for people living nearby.
Stories
This week, evacuations from the Russian-occupied left bank have stalled as Russian authorities blocked volunteers’ access to the settlement. Would-be evacuees, including some patients with low mobility, must anxiously wait till authorities allow access to the area again. However, our anonymous volunteers in another occupied settlement were able to continue their life-saving work, providing grocery sets, medicine and electric hot plates to local residents and refugees from the Nova Kakhovka flood.
360 packages distributed in 4 towns in the occupied territories.
Anonymous volunteers in undisclosed Russian-occupied territory supplied residents with 19 grocery sets, medicines for 11 people and electric hot plates for 7 people.
Kherson under attack - messages from Kherson volunteers:
“We decided to go to the eastern neighborhood, where we haven't been since it started to be heavily shelled. When we arrived, we saw an apartment that had suffered a direct hit. We continue to pump water from the garage spaces. The garages have been cleaned up, but there is still water, so we keep pumping it out.”
On September 21, our volunteers from Kherson sent us this message:
"Today, Kherson is heavily shelled, with over 30 incoming shells hitting residential buildings. The shelling doesn't stop. Today, within the safety zone, we'll only refuel the generators."
Until September 24, they only refueled the generators. And then…
“The housing area was hit by heavy shelling, with a lot of damage. The area is blocked, and no one is allowed in. The residential area – they shelled it heavily at night too. Even drones flew over the coastal areas. But today, we're in action; we can't sit still anymore.”
Private residences are worse off than the apartments because private houses are made of clay. The roofs remain, but the house themselves collapse.
“Last year, the Theater of Hopes and Expectations in Düsseldorf was created from the discarded remnants of sets from various German theaters. From August to November 2022 repurposed set pieces became the walls for a program of talks, exhibitions, screenings, and fundraisers.
Upon the project’s completion, the Theater was dismantled and the materials shipped to Ukraine. On the initiative of the volunteer group Livyj Bereh, it is currently being rebuilt into a new home for the Honchar family in the Kyiv region, whose prior residence was destroyed by a Russian tank in the spring of 2022.
The idea of reuse was further developed in cooperation with the Open for Maintenance project of the German Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale 2023, which uses the leftover exhibition materials from the Biennale Arte 2022 to create social infrastructures in Venice.
At the suggestion of the Prykarpattian Theater, their materials and workshop were also utilized to build the showcase to exhibit artifacts presented by the Theater of Hopes and Expectations in the Ukrainian Pavilion as part of the collective statement What Cannot Be Lost.”
Synelnykove – Aid Delivery and Individual Stories
Synelnykove, 120 sets for distribution of humanitarian aid have been delivered. Assistance has also been provided to low-income families. In this city and its nearby villages, there are many people who have recently arrived from the Donetsk region. Many are forced to change their living arrangement every 2-3 weeks. People provide them with accommodation, typically for up to a month (if they are leaving for somewhere else or a dacha), and then ask them to vacate as they return with their children for the start of the school year. Dacha houses are not suitable for winter living, and many are searching for shelter, even if it's just for the winter. Food assistance is very relevant today. People are grateful. Here are a few examples:
Nina Ivanovna, 80 years old, stood in line for more than 4 hours at one of the organizations to receive food aid but ended up not receiving any food because it ran out. She came to our distribution center and was very thankful and surprised to receive help. She has changed her place of residence three times in three months, and she has no one else. Her husband and son passed away before the war.
A couple came last week. The wife has stage 4 cancer. After receiving food and talking to a psychologist, they asked if they could come back again. They were enrolled in a support group conducted by the psychologist. After two meetings, the woman (who had previously lost all will to live and had decided to simply exist) brought homemade cookies made from the flour she received. She really wanted to treat others. She said, "I don't know how long I have left to live, but I want to live by improving others’ lives."
There are many such examples. Volunteers also deliver food to the homes of those who cannot come due to illness. On a scooter in the evening after work, they bring aid to two families. "If we don't bring food, what will they eat," they say. These instances are very inspiring.
Team summaries
Ihor Dobra Sprava (“Good Cause”)
185 people evacuated.
17 trips to frontline areas including Slovyansk, Mykolaiv, Druzhkivka, Kostyantynivka, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk and Kherson.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): distributed grocery sets to more than 500 people in Druzhkivka, Kostiantynivka, Lyman, Siversk (Donetsk Region) and Izium (Kharkiv Region).
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): transported 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 14 tons of water from Mykolaiv to Kherson.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 1,800 people.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): held 3 art therapy sessions for 53 children with disabilities, internally displaced (IDP) children and from large families. Took children to a play center and visited a sick boy with cerebral palsy who had had many operations.
Oleksandr D (Lutsk): sent 800 kg of energy bars and muesli to Dnipro for further distribution and delivered 250 kg of the same to a church in Lutsk for distribution to IDPs and the needy.
Alena - NGO Virgo
Installed a water heater in a refugee shelter in Odesa currently housing 42 people
Traveled to Zymivnyk, Komyshany, Kuybysheve, Kherson delivering 400 packages of sweet treats for children, 40 packages of household cleaning supplies, and one cement mixer.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
5 roofs restored in Slatyne and Prudianka near Kharkiv
Kherson team operations are hampered by non-stop shelling all along Dnipro River
76 family packages distributed around Berislav containing food, hygienic products, and candles.
Natasha - Vysnia Volunteer Center
During her second trip to the deoccupied village of Osokorivka, Tetiana Pasenko, who heads Kryvyi Rih branch of Natasha’s team, brought 300 packages and sets of glass jars to can and preserve the harvest from our agrarian project.
Karina - We Save Dnipro
Delivered 40 aid packages, water, and medicine to Nikopol.
67 people in the shelter.
Inna’s Team
27.8 tons of aid were distributed last week to 8,600 people.
9,500 people received bread.
Flood relief efforts continue despite horrific bombing of Kherson:
13 pump and generator maintenance tasks completed;
Installed 1 dehumidifier;
Pumped water out of three buildings;
Disinfected 6 buildings including one large basement.
210 packages were delivered to Berislav and Davydiv Brid over two trips.
100 people received help in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
70 people received aid in Nikopol plus volunteers brought bread and water to villages around Nikopol.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
Distributed 253 aid packages in and near Mykhailivka, Cherkasy region
Delivered food and supplies to rescuers and victims of the recent rocket strike in Cherkasy.
Pavel and Olena - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
1,874 people helped.
3 tons of water delivered to Novopavlivske.
Brought clothing (jeans, shirts and sporting costumes) to the village of Kobzartsi.
320 packages delivered to families with disabilities who relocated to Odesa from Mykolaiv.
Moved 1.5 tons of aid from Lutsk to Vinnytsia.
Andriy - BF Pomahaem
Team traveled twice to Kherson region, delivering 614 large double packages
10 tons of water delivered to Marhanets
We are preparing to deliver cots for people taking shelter further inland after intense shelling of Dnipro bank last week.
Dina - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
Distributed 380 packages of aid
Sergey T traveled to 4 villages in the Izyum area delivering 300 more packages to people who are just now getting electricity back and still don’t have cooking gas.
Bogdan - Vse robymo sami
42 displaced families in Zhytomyr received aid packages.
The children from NGO "We do it ourselves" went to the theater where they watched two shows. Art classes and psychological therapy continued for children with special needs and children from families affected by war.
Timur’s Team
Distributed 250 packages of food and hygiene in the Saltivka neighborhood of Kharkiv
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