May 31
Total evacuations to date: 34,879 people
Evacuations this week: 1,162 people
Hundreds of thousands of meals delivered to date
Thanks to the pro-bono support from Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, Ukraine TrustChain has received the letter of determination from the IRS, officially designating us as 501(c)(3) public charity. This will allow us to receive donations from corporations, donor advised funds and other 501(c)(3) public charities and foundations. Please consider reaching out to your employers or introducing us to contacts that can help us to expand fundraising efforts to include these new types of funding. The funds are urgently needed to continue supporting the heroic efforts of Ukrainian volunteer teams.
If you compare this week’s letter to the previous one, they seem similar. Evacuation teams continue to save people’s lives, getting another 1,048 Ukrainians out of danger, while Kyiv and Dnipro teams continue to scale their efforts supporting refugees in multiple places across the country. Yet, behind these numbers, there is a stream of new terrifying stories as the war rages on, pushing into the new territories in Eastern Ukraine and the bombing of Kharkiv resumes.
Ukraine Teams Milestones
Andriy’s team evacuates daily. This week, the pickup points moved further west to Slovyansk, Bakhmut, Soledar - reflecting the harsh realities on the ground. Despite extremely dangerous conditions, the team managed to run 15 trips, evacuating 532 people.
Pavel continued evacuations from the Mykolaiv area, saving the lives of 510 people, 226 of them children.
Using the car that Ukraine TrustChain purchased several weeks ago, Karina’s teams evacuate from hot zones, around Bakhmut and Kramatorsk. Karina’s teams evacuated 112 people.
Dina has officially expanded her organization by starting a refugee humanitarian aid distribution branch in Poltava. At the event, marking the opening of this center, she distributed 120 multi-week aid packages and registered 317 people for next week's distribution.
Natasha is preparing to open a distribution center in Kyiv, which would help streamline her work with other volunteer teams from the Kyiv region that we have been supporting through her organization, as well as provide a more readily accessible center for refugees currently staying in Kyiv.
We have learned that our volunteers in Dnipro are also tasked with the heavy burden of helping to organize funerals for people who died from bombardment and in battle. In three days, Karina had to help arrange 17 funerals, 11 of which were for children. Our funds do not go to support these efforts, but this shows the depth of grief that our Ukraine volunteers must bear.
Two ambulances were delivered to Kramatorsk this week. This project was completed by the Chernihiv volunteer organization “Svoyim” whose selected projects we have been supporting since mid March.
Continuing our work with Chernihiv based teams, we sponsored a humanitarian aid shipment from Western Ukraine to Chernihiv to be distributed in the coming days in the Chernihiv rural area. This aid arrived from Kazakhstan. In addition to three trucks of aid, people of Kazakhstan sent loving letters of support that we plan to translate and make public on our page.
Ukraine TrustChain continues sponsoring projects coordinated by Oleksandr including
Supporting 14 aid distribution centers with Krok Z Nadiyeyu foundation - 10 in Dnipro and 4 in Kharkiv;
Preparing and feeding refugees arriving at the Odesa railway station 2-3 times each week;
Helping people in the occupied territories in Kherson and Nova Kakhovka;
Bringing aid to Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and other towns — 15 locations total delivering approximate 7 tons of aid;
Delivering Medic Kit and medicine for three Dnipro hospitals.
How We Evacuate Children – Stories from Pavel’s Team
From time to time, Olena Shulha writes down her stories and thoughts about the evacuation missions her team lived through. We are including a translated portion from this chronicle here:
“...There were particular days when we would evacuate orphaned children from danger zones of Mykolaiv and the Mykolaiv region to safe places in Ukraine. We would perform these evacuations in several stages. After learning that help was needed, we would first fill out all necessary documents, very quickly. The next step was the actual trip there.
These were the scariest days.
The first to evacuate were institutions for the psychological rehabilitation of children. That morning, our team headed out on our evacuation mission. At the same time, new teachers were supposed to arrive at the orphanage. Before our drivers enter into any zone, we always check the route for safety. The teachers, unfortunately, did not do this. As they were driving, a Russian tank appeared and tried to stop them. The driver, too afraid, kept driving. Russians shot at the car, and it exploded. Only the driver, badly injured, and one woman survived. The rest perished.
Pavel and his team had to drive through country roads to evacuate the children and their teachers. First, they brought the children to one city, and then in a few days, drove them the rest of the way to safety. For the children, this was an extremely challenging journey – to travel this whole way. Many of them were incredibly sick, very afraid, and under intense stress. We tried hard to calm them, tending to all of their needs.”
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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