March 9, 2023
48,927 people evacuated from danger to date
105 people evacuated from danger this week
13 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
Once again this letter will not follow our usual format. The condensed summary of team achievements as well as the highlights of some of the team trips can be found below.
I’ve just come back from my almost four week trip to Ukraine. I described the first part of the trip in our previous letter here. Although I’ve already captured many key insights in last week’s letter, there are a few important experiences I want to share with you.
In addition to this newsletter, we invite all of you to a Zoom meeting at 6PM CT on March 23, exactly a year after our first community Zoom session. We will share an update on the latest developments and accomplishments by our heroic teams as well as answer any questions about our organization. Let’s reflect together as we mark one year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a year of UTC support of the Ukrainian volunteer movement.
Daniil’s Trip to Ukraine Part 2
The key goal for the trip was to support our teams, show our unity with them on the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and visit them in the cities where they live and operate. In the cities where multiple teams were present we organized team summits to help create new connections within the volunteer movement. In last week’s newsletter I described the meetings with the teams in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Izyum and Lutsk. This week I will focus on projects in Sumy and on the trip with Pavel Shulha, a hero who operates in the Mykolayiv, Vinnitsa and Zakarpattia regions, and who has rescued more than 30,000 people.
Sumy
Sumy is a city in the very Northeast of Ukraine. A region often overlooked by Soviet historians, Sumy is a fascinating place with a long history. The ancient towns of Putyvl and Romny have been at the heart of Kyivan Rus' struggle against invasions from the East. Last year, once again the city of Sumy and the surrounding towns witnessed dramatic events. In the confusion of the first days of the invasion, Ukrainian citizens stormed the arsenal in the city and armed themselves, preventing Russian forces from capturing the city.
I joined Kseniia’s team on a trip to Sumy in order to launch the reconstruction of a school in the village of Boromlia which had spent a month under Russian occupation. This was a vivid example of Russia’s true goals in their attempt to “liberate” Ukrainians. The school was used as barracks by Russian soldiers. Rather than getting the keys from the front of the school, the door to every locked closet and classroom was broken or hacked with an axe. Every computer, every tablet, everything of value, including the urinals, was stolen. Things that had no practical use, such as microscopes or projectors, were destroyed, and the windows were all shot up.
The school supports a large constellation of villages and the town of Boromlia. Currently the school operates remotely, but the funds raised by the mighty community of Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan will ensure that the school reopens in September. The key item that the reconstruction will address is the heating system. Heating will make it possible to proceed with wall repairs and painting, as well as meet the government standards for reopening.
Kseniia, Vlad, and Ihor’s team of Livyj Bereh took up this project. Since Ukraine TrustChain always looks for the most direct and efficient ways to contribute, Livyj Bereh will circumvent the local administration because it couldn’t provide the right level of transparency on the building permits contracts. The Livyj Bereh team worked for 2 months around the clock aligning contracts and ensuring that all the unneeded intermediaries were removed from the process. The reconstruction will be done by a trusted team of builders, while the school principal and school staff, people who care deeply about the school, will supervise the process. During our visit to the Sumy region, we signed the final contracts and kicked off the repair process.
Mykolaiv, Vinnitsa, Zakarpatya
The last days of my trip to Ukraine I spent with Pavel Shulha, which was an absolute honor. Pavel and his team have exemplified the courage and flexibility of Ukrainian volunteers. In this past year, they saved more than 30,000 people from the most dangerous zones, evacuating women and children, as well as many orphanages. Pavel is one of the most important humanitarian heroes in the history of Ukraine.
Pavel’s team is large and complex. He remains committed to his prewar mission of helping orphans find parents rather than spending time in Ukrainian orphanages, which unfortunately continue to suffer from a multitude of institutional issues that have plagued them since Soviet times.
Because of the war, Pavel’s focus shifted to evacuations of civilians and then to supplying people with humanitarian aid. He continues to provide families with children with free, safe passage across Ukraine and supports a number of locations that house evacuated boarding schools, orphanages and refugee families. According to internal stats the number of orphans has grown by a striking 10% in just one year - leading to a crisis Ukraine will need to address in the coming years.
For now, though, Pavel ensures that evacuees within Ukraine continue to be properly supplied. He pulls in humanitarian aid from Western organizations and moves it through his hubs in the Carpathian mountains, Vinnitsa and Mykolayiv, sustaining about 5,000 people a week in the Mykolayiv region and supporting thousands more along his routes to the Kharkiv and Donbas regions. Due to security concerns we couldn’t report on his heroic trips to the most dangerous parts of the country in the last three months, but we will continue supporting his missions as they happen.
Villages around Mykolayiv
Together with Pavel, we traveled to the villages of Zasyllia and Partyzanske, where he provides repair materials to the locals. In the last three months, Pavel has provided repair supplies to 454 houses, something that we simply failed to report due to miscommunication. UTC covered transportation costs for these trips, while another organization provided materials.
In the village of Partyzanske I saw firsthand the early stages of village revival. Although the scenery is starkly post-apocalyptic with every single roof destroyed and wall peppered with shrapnel, life is returning even to these desolate places. After talking to a number of residents, I learned that they start with covering a single room with plastic tarps, and begin cleaning out the debris. Then they save up to buy or find lumber for roof trusses (Mykolayiv does not have forests so the wood needs to be brought in), after which they are able to build a roof and put in wood stoves to start drying out the shattered interiors.
Yet the mood within the village is strangely upbeat. It is easy for people to cry as they list their troubles, but they quickly brush the tears aside and talk with excitement about ongoing repairs and upcoming planting season. After visiting the village and meeting local volunteers, UTC is planning to work with Pavel to help these villagers rebuild as well as support them in the upcoming planting season.
Highlights:
Yuri S’s trip almost ended in tragedy as another driver caused a major accident nearly destroying Yuri’s vehicle. Miraculously, none of them sustained major injuries. Maksim from Inna’s team came to the rescue and the two volunteers successfully reloaded and delivered 2.5 tons of aid to desperate citizens of Siversk.
Kseniia was awarded the order of Zvytiaga last week.
As evacuations pick up, Karina supported 91 evacuations from the villages that are likely to form the next line of defense if Ukraine loses Bahmut.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Oleksandr’s Volunteer Network
3.5 tons of aid to Chernihiv and Kramatorsk; 2 tons of food aid to people with disabilities (Oleksandr S, Boyarka)
2.5 tons of aid to Sivers’k (Yuri S, Kyiv)
24 tons of drinking water and 12 tons of aid to Mykolaiv (Vladyslav K)
26 tons of heating briquettes to Mykolaiv Region (Oleksiy H, Kherson)
1,200 fed in Odesa (Sandra S)
20 tons of aid to Donetsk Region; 15 tons of aid to Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia Regions (Andriy P, Chernivtsi)
Supplies from Poland for internally displaced persons (IDPs) (Oksana K, Lutsk)
Art therapy classes continued; aided 21 people with disabilities; distributed 53 glasses and eyeglasses (Oleksandr Z, Lutsk)
90 kg of food aid to IDPs in Lutsk and Volhynia regions (Viktor V, Lutsk)
Angelia - Mobile Clinic
53 people served and 271 medical services performed in Brovary, Kyiv region.
Mobile clinic (converted big rig) included a family doctor, ENT, and services in EKG, bloodwork, urinalysis and lipid panel.
Inna’s Team
Distributed 10,000 loaves of bread in both Kharkiv and Dnipro.
Delivered 33,000 kg of aid to 8,500 people.
5 trips to deoccupied regions including 2 to Kherson (Berislav, Davydiv Brid) and 2 in Donetsk region (Druzhkivka, Konstantynivka) and the bombarded city of Nikopol.
Pavel - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
Delivered 270 cubic meters of firewood to Mykolayiv villages.
Provided food packages to 6,700 people.
Evacuated 14 (6 children) from bombarded Zaporizhzhya.
Karina - We Save Dnipro
Brought 76 packages of food, medicine, potbelly stoves and wood to Kherson.
Delivered aid to 91 people in Chasov Yar, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka.
The shelter is currently housing 89 people, of whom 37 are children.
Surveyed the residents of the shelter and will try to start a daycare center for the children and help find jobs for the adults.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
Kherson team we support through Kseniia completed trips to 5 deoccupied villages of Kherson region: Poniativka, Orlovka, Ingulivka, Shaslyve, Kostromka.
Darya Taran went 2 times to the village of Dvorichna delivering aid and attempting to evacuate people.
Kseniia was awarded the order of Zvytiaga last week.
Dina - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
Distributed 826 packages of food.
Provided snacks, juice boxes, and art supplies to the art therapy group in Kremenchuk.
Trip to Kyiv to push the aid received by Natalia to Kharkiv.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
Distributed aid to 207 families in Raihorod, Revivka, Mykhailivka, Rebedailivka and Zhabotyn.
Brought supplies to the warming center in Mykhailivka.
Brought aid to a family-style orphanage (1 family; 9 kids, 6 of whom are adopted).
Andriy’s Team - BF Pomahaem
Distributed ~2200 packages to refugees.
Shelter is filling up; 90 people now live in Andriy’s shelter.
Marina’s Team - Good Give Ukraine
Delivered diapers and feminine products to the children and maternity clinic in Zhovti Vody.
Handed out 150 packages of food, 192 hygiene kits for internally displaced people along with clothes, blankets, bedding, towels, and footwear for adults and children in their distribution centers.
Alena’s Team
Preparing to go to Kisilevka next week.
Natasha’s Team - Vysnia Volunteer Center
Natalia received another truck of protein bars. In the meantime she continues to distribute the pallets of supplies to other teams withing UTC network.
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
Delivered 700 packages of aid and 120 kg of food for abandoned pets around the Kharkiv region.
Supported another 40 aid requests from elderly and people with disabilities.
Helping mothers who are widows requesting diapers.
US Team
We want to extend a special thank you to Lindy Thomas at the United Methodist Church in Vincentown, NJ, for her efforts in organizing a fundraising event for Ukraine TrustChain.
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.
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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.