June 13, 2024
62,112 people evacuated from danger to date
155 people evacuated from danger this week
43 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Earlier this week we reached the $10,000,000 mark of donations sent to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. This is a significant milestone. Over the last two years our true heroes, the civilian volunteers on the ground in Ukraine, have achieved incredible feats with this support, described in our 118 newsletters. These resources have made it possible to evacuate 62,000 people, deliver 14,000 tons of aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and provide at least a week's worth of aid to 5.3 million people.
Our strategy is to run the US operation with no administrative expenses (all work and resources on the US side are donated by volunteers) and to deploy funds as quickly as our volunteer community in Ukraine can absorb them. It never ceases to amaze us that our donors, large and small, new and existing, have helped keep this effort going for so long. We don't know what the future holds for us, but we remain true to our mission.
Next week our board representatives will be traveling to Ukraine for the fourth time to connect and align with our teams on what needs to be done for the rest of 2024. This period will be challenging, with continuing Russian relentless attacks on Ukraine. Your ongoing support is vital in helping us face these challenges head on. We remain immensely grateful to all our donors for making this possible.
Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for standing with Ukraine.
Stories
Aid Delivered to Chasiv Yar
Vitaliy Z, a fearless Kharkiv-based volunteer we support through Oleksandr D’s network, managed to get into Chasiv Yar again last week. Increasing proliferation of drones, made this place extremely dangerous, forcing most people to hide in their basements. Vitaliy’s team delivered three tons of aid (300 packages) this time and is planning a mission with two additional drop-off points next week where locals will have a better chance of getting to the distribution site.
Agricultural Project Active Phase Completed
Last week, Inna Kampen and her team compiled and summed up the numbers on our favorite agricultural projects. Overall, the aid was distributed to 10,000 households, 24,886 people, spanning 56 locations across six regions of Ukraine. Most of the aid recipients were women. Women-headed households, increasingly common in Ukraine, made up 26% of the total. Other important categories were single mothers (14.7%), female internally displaced people (IDPs) (21%), and women with disabilities (8.5%).
Together with this final report, the first pictures of harvest have started to arrive. Here is one of the letters, Inna’s team asked us to share:
“Everything is growing and smells fragrant! Our whole family looks after the plants waiting for our cabbage, peppers and tomatoes. In the fall we will report the actual harvest. Your idea was great — hoping for a wholesome yield. Thank you for organizing this. May God help all of us.”
Amicus Trip
The Amicus team traveled to Lithuania this week to pick up vehicles and humanitarian aid. It has been some time since they last made this trip. Vitaliy N, the team leader, got sick after the last run and took a while to recover. This time the team was able to bring back four mini buses, one bus and one ATV. They drove most of the vehicles themselves, but needed an additional driver from Ukraine for the larger bus. Getting drivers for such ventures is often a challenge, as most commercial drivers in Ukraine are men of military age who are not usually allowed to leave the country.
Before the volunteers bring vehicles over the border into Ukraine they fill them with humanitarian aid. This time they brought firefighting equipment for Kherson and boxes of hygiene supplies for internally displaced refugees. The firefighting equipment is particularly critical as the increased Russian strikes lead to more fires in the affected areas.
Help in the Occupied Territories
250 packages were delivered in 4 occupied towns on the left bank and 6 people were evacuated along with their pets.
Anastasia’s Trip
Anastasia traveled again to the Donetsk Region, delivering 281 food packages and 281 hygiene packages to two villages. When the team got to the first village they heard the artillery strikes not far away. Local villagers, adapted to warzone existence, have developed a knack for judging the distance and intensity of strikes, and knew that the shelling was taking place in the very village to which Anastasia and her team was heading next. Remarkably, despite anxieties and fears, Anastasia did not change her plans – after the strike ended, she delivered her aid.
Anastasia commented that the village where the strike took place has sustained a lot of damage, most of it in the last four weeks. She was saddened at seeing children who were no longer afraid of the sounds of explosions because these had become a normal part of their world.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra Sprava (“Good Cause”)
15 trips and 142 people evacuated from Kostyantynivka, Pokrovsk, Selydove, Lyman, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Kurakhove, Sviatohirsk, Mykolaiv, Druzhkivka, Myrnohrad, Novohrodivka, and Kherson areas.
Inna’s Team – Krok z Nadiyeyu (“Step with Hope”)
9,500 people received bread. Additional 22.5 tons of aid were delivered.
Work in Kherson:
Performed exterminations in 12 buildings.
Mold removal at a bomb shelter and 5 other spaces.
12 generator maintenance tasks performed.
Distributed sweets in Zahradivka (Kherson Region).
Delivered aid to 9 towns in Donbas including embattled Kostyantynivka, Druzhkivka and others.
Delivered aid in and around Nikopol, including the village of Tokivs’ke.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): Oleksandr’s volunteer Andriy V and his team delivered 2,000 kg of food, hygiene products, antiseptics, and books to 150 families in the Sumy Region towns of Kam’yanka and Romashkove, which are constantly under enemy fire.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 7 tons to Kherson.
Andriy P (Mykolaiv): delivered two disinfection cabinets for the local hospital in the Vilniansk urban community and Matviivka in the Zaporizhzhia Region.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed about 1,000 people.
Yuri S (Vinnytsia): visited children at the Vinnytsia boarding school, took a disabled person to the social rehabilitation center and participated in the repair of the center.
Maksym B (Berezan): delivered 4,850 kg of food products from Kyiv to Kharkiv for further assembly into food kits.
Vitaliy Z (Kharkiv): delivered 3 tons of aid packages, clothing, medicines, and animal feed to 2 locations in Chasiv Yar. The situation in the town is extremely dangerous. Also delivered 2 tons of aid to Kostiantynivka and Novodmytrivka. All locations are in the Donetsk Region.
Oksana K (Lutsk): sent 700 kg. of buckwheat by mail to a children’s camp in Chernivtsi for children of military orphans. Helped a sick internally displaced person (IDP) with hygiene products. Distributed 300 kg worth of food at the local Ark church.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions for children and families:
Organized a retreat for children and families of fallen soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade.
Distributed bread and other food to 165 IDP children and 125 IDP adults, living in shelters.
Held art therapy workshops for 46 disabled children and IDP children (a total of 2 workshops were organized).
Organized a rehabilitation “vacation” for 16 IDP children.
Organized and attended a presentation on the use of a prosthetic hand by a representative of the Prosthesis-Hub organization who suffered a serious injury at age 16 and has two prosthetic legs, a prosthetic hand and and prosthetic eye.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh (“Left Bank”)
Darya, based in Kharkiv, evacuated 7 people from villages near Kupiansk.
Darya delivered 78 packages to Kut’kivka and Kasyanivka near Kupiansk.
Svitlana's group in Kherson delivered 295 packages to Kherson, Posad-Pokrovsk, Bilozerka and Oleksandrivka.
Karina’s Team - We Save Dnipro
69 people in the shelter.
Together with the Dobra Sprava team, delivered 35 packages of aid to the most vulnerable people treated by the psychiatric hospital in Sloviansk.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch (“Help is Near”)
Distributed 100 aid packages to old and disabled people in Smila via the department of social services.
Organized festivities for kids in the village of Bereznyaki to mark International Children’s Day.
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
After dealing with onslaught of evacuations and increased attacks in the east, the team took a break last week to handle administrative matters. As of the writing of this newsletter, they have resumed their work. You will hear more from them next week.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams - (“Touch of Heart” and “Dawn of Hope”)
1587 people received aid in the Mykolaiv office.
210 packages delivered to Myrne and Luch.
Delivered toys and kids clothing to Kobzartsi.
Brought flashlights to Luch, where electricity has been out for more than 6 days.
Kirill, Marina, Andriy - Pomahaem Foundation (“We Help”)
Delivered 100 packages to Myrnohrad in Donbas (2 trips).
Delivered 171 packages to Kushuhum near Zaporizhzhia.
Marina’s Team – Give Good Ukraine
Distributed 150 aid packages in Zhovti Vody.
Provided 86 gifts to displaced children for International Children's Day.
Delivered 4 hospital beds to Piatyhatky Central Hospital.
Dina’s Team - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina (“Free People - Free Country”)
Distributed 380 packages in Kanev, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Dnipro, and Krasnokutsk.
Bogdan’s Team - Vse robymo sami (“We do everything ourselves”)
Distributed 43 food and hygiene packages in Zhytomyr.
Launched the Inclusive Children's Summer Camp "Joy" for kids.
The club for children with disabilities continues to operate as usual, teaching basic skills and art, and conducting sessions with a psychologist.
Anastasia’s Team - Love UA
Delivered 281 food packages and 281 hygiene packages to the Donetsk Region.
How to Help
Donate - The money goes directly to teams providing aid on the ground, who respond dynamically to the most urgent needs.
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