April 6, 2023
49,877 people evacuated from danger to date
216 people evacuated from danger this week
30 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
At our recent community meeting, many of us were moved to tears when a community member shared that her church prints out our weekly newsletters and prays over the names of our Ukraine volunteers. As many of us head on spring break, or come together for a holiday meal for Easter or Passover, let us continue to hold the suffering of Ukrainians whose homes are unsafe, who are unsure what or how they will feed their families and children on this second holiday of war. Last week, as you’ll read below, our volunteers, though weary and tired and in need of a break themselves, took 30 separate missions to bring aid to cities and towns like Lyman, which has been liberated, but many areas continue to suffer the aftermath of Russian attacks. As the war drags on we are not only grateful to the volunteers who keep going, but also to our supporters who continue to remember them, mention them in prayer, and worry about their lifesaving work.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Ihor’s Team — Dobra Sprava “Good Cause”
We continue our support of Dobra Sprava - a brave volunteer organization providing free evacuations from frontline zones. Last week 9 drivers took 14 separate trips evacuating 177 people.
These services are particularly important as the cities west of Bakhmut are seeing an increase in the number of lethal bombings of civilian areas. Last week, a strike on Sloviansk, one of the common destinations for Ihor and his team, killed and injured 31 people.
Slava Kedr
Slava Kedr, our volunteer based in Kharkiv, traveled to Lyman last week delivering 150 aid packages that contained food, some hygienic products and flashlights. The Eastern front still passes close to Lyman. Although Russia has not been able to launch as many attacks in the last two weeks, the city infrastructure is not able to fully meet the needs of its population impoverished by Russia’s war. Besides the technical details, Slava shared, “there are lots of dogs and cats walking the streets; they are so lost you want to take them all home, wash them off, feed them.”
Anastasia’s Team
Every couple of weeks, Anastasia and her team go to the high need areas mostly in the de-occupied zones. This time, her team headed to the Izium area to the village of Kapitolivka.
One of the volunteers on this mission has brought books in Ukrainian to the local library. Many of our teams have reported that Russian troops seemed to make a point of destroying books and study materials in the Ukrainian language in the territories they invaded.
Although the initial plan was to distribute the aid in these villages, Anastasia reassessed after seeing the situation on the ground, determined that food aid was not a top need in that area, but instead, residents needed hygienic products. Anastasia then traveled further East to the Donetsk region. On the way they passed through Sosnove and other villages completely flattened by the war. The group arrived in the towns of Sviatohirsk and Yarova where they distributed 300 packages to residents who quickly came to receive them.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
After completing the 101st house, Livyj Bereh has taken a short break, as the next round of building material deliveries are lined up. The only building project that kept on going was the construction of a house for a large family in Sloboda Kucharska near Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Darya continues to travel multiple times a week to the frontline, evacuating the few people that are able to overcome the shock and paralysis, and flee the battle zone. Darya’s messages are sparse as she struggles emotionally with this brutal routine.
The Kherson team we support through Kseniia distributed aid in Kherson through their own lists and in the village of Zelenivka. We did not get the exact count of people who received aid by the time of writing of this report.
Bogdan - Vse robymo sami
Bogdan’s organization distributed food for families and baby food for little ones. Household items, blankets and strollers were given to families that needed them. In their center, they held weekly events for kids in their "Children's Psychological Unloading Room" where children are being taught through games how to deal with emotions while their parents participate in an art session.
Inna’s Team - Krok z Nadiyeyu
Inna’s team continues their concerted efforts to support the civilian population in the frontline zones west of Bakhmut, seeing an increase in bombardments. Her team arrived in Kramatorsk right when Russian rockets hit the city, but fortunately was unharmed this time. The same situation repeated itself in Konstantinovka where distribution of seeds and food was happening during a rocket bombardment alert.
Volunteers face a difficult choice, as their distribution window is limited and the barrages are frequent. Volunteers usually distribute aid while the sirens are blaring. They shared that singing together during the distribution helps them cope with the stress. Imagine a crowd of exhausted people waiting for food, singing old songs about love to drown out bomb sirens.
Three generators were delivered to the village of Mospanovo that has not had electricity for almost a year. This delivery will have a transformative effect on the community there, allowing residents to communicate with the outside world and begin reconstruction work over the summer.
The team completed two more trips to the bombarded city of Berislav in the Kherson region, and went to Nikopol and Marhanets.
As usual we can’t even list more than 30 other locations that need help but are not in the official danger zones that the team reached in the last week. We continue to be astonished by the unyielding energy an innovation Inna’s team brings into this process at scale.
Overall, 19,380 people received assistance last week in the form of food, medicine and hygienic products. In parallel the agrarian project continues with an additional 5,400 families receiving more than 24 tons of seeds and planting potatoes.
Natasha’s Team - Vysnia Volunteer Center
Last week Natalia went to the Lyman area to the villages of Ozerne and Dibrova, delivering three hundred packages sponsored by UTC as well as clothing and shoes donated by Kyiv Rotary Club. Natalia has already taken a number of trips there since deoccupation; local activists welcomed her as an old friend. Natalia felt that in parts of Lyman the situation had improved thanks to the stable frontline and less frequent bombardments.
Natasha’s team in Kryvyi Rih continued their weekly trips to the northeast of the Kherson region focusing on providing potatoes and onion specifically for planting this spring. They delivered a truck of planting potatoes to the village of Tverdomedove providing help to 60 families.
Pavel’s Team — Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
Pavel’s team has also pivoted to providing help to the villagers ahead of the planting season. In the first stage of the project the team is distributing potatoes for planting; in the second part, due to start this week, they will distribute seeds. So far Pavel’s team has provided help to 744 families spread over 6 villages: Partizanske (114), Zasillia (54), Bavovne (138), Prybuz’ke (126), Kotlyarove (117), Novomykolayivka (195) – all of which have been severely damaged in earlier months but are seeing a cautious rebound as people are beginning to return to their land, in part thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian volunteers.
3,642 packages were distributed to families out of Mykolayiv humanitarian aid center.100 more packages were delivered to Kherson, and 10 more village residents around Mykolayiv received the remaining potbelly stoves.
Oleksandr’s Volunteer Network
Pavlo V’s team dropped off 300 kg of groceries in Pavlograd for distribution in Hirnyk and Kurakhove, then proceeded to Kramatorsk, where they distributed 1,500 kg of food kits. Kramatorsk is shelled constantly at night when residents are asleep. Many buildings have been destroyed. After Kramatorsk it was on to Sloviansk where the volunteers handed out 3,900 grocery items to the constant accompaniment of air raid sirens. Out of 440 people on the list in Sloviansk only 260 showed up – many of the rest have left and some have been killed. Bread, groceries and wheelchairs were also delivered to the Dnipropetrovsk Region, which has become an island between the relatively calm parts of Ukraine and the war-torn East and South. Many IDPs congregate here, with volunteer NGO organizations playing a key role in providing for these refugees.
Oleksandr S’ volunteers from Boyarka brought five tons of groceries to the border Sumy Region, where people suffer constantly from Russian attacks. Oleksandr paints one day’s snapshot of the destruction: in Krasnopil’ one civilian was injured and a commercial building was damaged by drone-delivered fragmentation grenades; Bilopillya was targeted all day with mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns, and in Seredyna-Buda two residential buildings and a power line were damaged by mortar fire.
Kyryl’s organization BF NEEKA in Chernivtsi took care of IDP families and individuals. 238 families received individual hygiene kits, sleeping bags, flashlights, pillows, blankets, mattresses, bed linens, canisters and kitchen sets; 14 IDP families were provided with secondhand clothes and diapers; 36 IDPs obtained counseling on various informational and legal issues; 10 disabled IDPs received transportation to medical appointments and 60 IDPs participated in a crafting master class teaching them how to make souvenirs.
Oksana K’s team in Lutsk brought cereal, hats for children and teenagers, backpacks, baby food, T-shirts and sweaters to IDPs in the Torchyn community (Volyn Region) and to children with disabilities at a kindergarten. Oksana also sent help to a family in the city of Chuhuiv (Kharkiv Region) in which the son is in the military and the mother is seriously ill and a parcel to a family in Mykolaiv, where the man is a former POW, the woman is sick and there are two small children.
Oleksandr Z’s NGO Zirka Nadiyi (Star of Hope) in Lutsk held three sculpting clay therapeutic workshops for children with severe cerebral palsy, and other disabled children, IDP children and children from large families. Social pedagogue Maria Z pays individual attention to the development of each child and her lessons have a calming effect on the children. Zirka Nadiyii has also launched a new candle making class at Adrenalin City Center for Assistance to Displaced Persons.
Vladyslav K’s team delivered 3,000 ₴ worth of fuel and 35 tons of water to 13 points in Mykolaiv and distributed food kits to 250 families. Sandra S’ kitchen in Odessa fed more than 900 people including bedridden patients. Nazar P’s team in Kherson gave out grocery kits to 250 people, mostly pensioners. The Kyiv-based NGO Ukrayinsʹkyy Dim (Ukrainian House) brought a truckload of COVID-19 tests, medicines and wheelchairs from Warsaw to Kyiv, to be distributed to various medical centers in Ukraine.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
This was a busy week for Tetiana’s team. The group distributed aid in four villages: Chervona Sloboda, Hutory, Verguny, and Nechayivka, giving out 293 packages in total. They also helped a large family that miraculously escaped from an occupied village in the Donetsk region. The family was given an abandoned house to live in, but there was nothing in the house. Tetiana brought them necessities: food, utensils, pots and pans, an electric stove, teapot, seeds for them to start their own vegetable garden, and gardening tools. The family only took what they absolutely needed and asked to distribute what’s left to others. They asked for one additional item: live chickens to make their own chicken coop and become more self-sufficient.
Karina’s Team - We Save Dnipro
This week Karina’s team focused on evacuating people from small towns and villages who have been injured and need medical attention. The hospitals in these towns are not able to provide injured patients with the necessary care, and also are overwhelmed by serving the wounded from the frontlines. The team has been evacuating non-military personnel to the hospitals in Dnipro, but most of them are unable to walk and the roads to the towns are under artillery fire, making evacuations extremely dangerous. The team was able to evacuate 12 bedridden and 26 other people from Konstantinovka, Kramatorsk, and Zaporizhzhya.
Alena’s Team - Virgo Volunteer Center
While Alena was traveling this week she provided a report on the most recent batch of generators distributed. Alena found especially significant recipients of the generators. Odesa’s largest public maternity clinic received 2 generators that allowed it to outfit a fully functional bomb shelter where doctors can continue to help patients.
Generators were also delivered to Odesa’s 6th hospital allowing them to provide backup power to each of their operating rooms. This help was particularly timely, as this week once again skies over Odesa were full with Air Defense barrages and Russia’s kamikaze drones.
Angelia - Mobile Clinic
On March 21st and 27th the mobile clinic traveled to the towns of Berezan and Rzhyshchiv in the Kyiv Region with a large number of internally displaced persons in need of medical and humanitarian aid, as many doctors had left the area when the war started. Rzhyshchiv is also in the middle of experiencing a tragedy – enemy drones recently attacked the town and hit a college dorm, destroying the top two floors. Six people died and many were injured.
The clinics included a family doctor, ENT, ECG, and facilities for testing blood, urine, sugar and lipids. In Berezan 82 patients received 345 services; in Rzhyshchiv 60 patients received 288 services. Among the patients was a woman who was diagnosed with two malignant pelvic tumors which were fortunately caught in time and operated on soon after.
Marina’s Team — Good Give Ukraine
Marina’s group put together and distributed 150 food boxes for single elderly people last week. On top of that, their team donated and supplied vegetables to the internally displaced people living together in the "Temporary Accommodation Center.”
Andriy’s Team - BF Pomahaem
Andriy’s team resumed trips delivering aid to 500 families in Novomoskovsk and Nikopol. Andriy’s shelter continued to house 86 people. It was interesting to hear our other team Dobra Sprava mention and praise Andriy’s shelter as one of the few shelters providing a full set of services for longer-term stays. These unexpected connections prove once again how interconnected the volunteer movement is in Ukraine.
We continue to work with Andriy’s staff to ship generators all across Ukraine to other volunteer organizations, organizations supporting critical infrastructure, and large families with children.
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
This week 700 packets of aid were delivered to villages in the Kharkiv regions. The team also made an attempt to deliver aid to Kupyansk but was forced to turn around due to heavy fighting in the area and insufficient clearance level. Many of these deliveries include adult diapers. They are needed for the bedridden elderly who cannot make it to the aid delivery points. On a happier note, Timur turned 25 this week!
Dina’s Team - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
VL-VK volunteers distributed 444 packages of humanitarian aid at their usual distribution centers. Additionally, they helped internally displaced families with medicine and pet food sourced from other organizations, as well as diapers thanks to a generous grant to UTC from Carry the Future.
The Dnipro team mailed out 120 boxes of aid to families who filled out the form requesting their help in unoccupied territories.
Sergey T traveled from Kharkiv to the towns of Guty and Mala Rogan’ where they distributed food, hygiene products, and sweets to the children. They were able to help 160 families and 212 children in Mala Rogan’, and 100 families and 150 children in Guty.
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.