May 25, 2023
51,313 people evacuated from danger to date
185 people evacuated from danger this week
24 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
We Stand with our Volunteers - Andriy Pinchuk is Persecuted by Corrupt Church Officials
Earlier last week one of our closest partners in Ukraine, Andriy Pinchuk experienced a deep personal tragedy. Last week he was effectively expelled from his position of a parish priest and prohibited from performing religious duties in the church where he was a priest for many years. The reason for losing his parishwas being a vocal critic of the church leadership. Since the start of the war, Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been harshly criticized by many in Ukraine for corruption and failure to come to terms with its troubled past and dependency on Moscow Patriarchate. Andriy’s refusal to abandon his denomination, and at the same time his vocal and outspoken position calling for transparency and decisive reform has infuriated church leadership, who now resorted to aggressive measures trying to silence Andriy under the false pretenses and accusations. You can learn more about Andriy’s fight here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/world/europe/ukraine-war-russian-orthodox-church.html
Despite all this, his team continues their humanitarian mission. An update is provided below.
AGRICULTURAL PROJECT UPDATE
As we delve deeper into the intricacies of this project, we are astounded by the commitment and skill of our volunteers. Tens of thousands of seedlings have reached more than 40 villages, including 10 in frontline areas of Donetsk. The seedlings require meticulous protection during transportation over war-torn roads under the sun that’s already quite strong. However, thanks to the efforts of Inna's team, not a single shipment has been lost.
The seeds sown in previous weeks continue to sprout. We were elated to receive the first images of radishes already harvested from gardens in Donbass and Kryvii Rih.
Pavel's team has also successfully completed seed distributions. The scope of the project, initially aiming to help 700 families near Mykolayiv, has expanded to over 8,000 individuals within 2,668 families across 18 villages severely damaged during the battle for Kherson.
Demining of Kherson Villages - Natasha and Vyshnia Volunteer Center
The civil demining corps we support through Natalia’s team reported that they completed our first joint project, demining a village in Kherson region. This involved demining of a local school building that can serve as a bomb shelter, clearing of unexploded shells from inside homes and of munitions from people’s yards and gardens. For security reasons, we cannot reveal the name of the village, but progress was confirmed by our trusted volunteers. Hundreds of dangerous, unexploded objects like the ones below are found and neutralized daily.
“Found today”
Evacuations from Donbas - Ihor - Dobra Sprava (“Good Cause”)
There is a small town in the East of Ukraine called New York. It sits on a hill only a few miles away from the frontline and is often shelled by Russians. One day last week, Dobra Sprava team was in the city distributing aid and preparing to evacuate people. A boy who had just received a package for his grandma came back again and showed some other person’s passport this time. The volunteers thought that he was possibly trying to cheat, but it turned out that he was trying to get aid for another child, Adam, who is disabled and couldn’t come to get help. The boy got Adam’s mother’s passport and was trying to convince volunteers to give some sweets to Adam as well. This story deeply moved our weathered volunteers, who see hundreds of tragedies in their weekly travels.
Last week Dobra Sprava evacuated 176 people, making 13 trips to Donetsk region.Ukraine Team Milestones
Team Summaries
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): delivered medicines and household appliances and 1 ton of potatoes in Sumy region (towns of Bilopillya and Myropyllya).
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): Delivered 35 tons of water, 6 tons of food (300 food kits)
Sandra S (Odesa): 1,500 people fed, including bedridden patients. With a new source of free apples will start making apple strudels.
Yury S (Vinnitsa): Delivered 1.5 tons clothes and 200 kg groceries to 100+ people in Berezyne, Dashkivtsi, Tyvriv and Bruslyniv.
Oksana K (Lutsk): Delivered aid to IDP children and children with disabilities in Torchyn.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): 3 children art therapy sessions, special meetings for refugee children from Donetsk Region and art therapy for women and families with men at the front. Groceries, clothes and shoes to 49 IDP children with disabilities in Lutsk and Kovel. 24 children and people with disabilities attended camp where they received help from American psychologists and also learned how to cook.
Pavlo Babenko (Zaporizhzhia): 5,800 loaves of bread and 18,600 cans of meat pate to Liubashivka, Serhiivka (Odesa Region), Hrozne, Yakovlivka, Novoyelenivka, Teplichnyi, Shevchenko (Donetsk Region), Petrovske (Luhansk Region), Novotavrychevske, Bogatyrevo, Liutserna, Novohupalivka, Vilniansk, Sokolivka, Heorhivske, Petro-Mykhailivka, Dniprovka (Zaporizhia Region) and Ternovske (Dnipropetrovsk Region).
Angelia - Mobile Clinic
5/2 - 5/11 - 4 trips to Bila Tserkva, Bucha (Kyiv region), and Oster and Kozelets (Chernihiv region). Helped 259 patients and provide 1172 procedures, including EKG, ENT, labs for blood, urine, sugar, lipidogram, etc.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
4 more homes repaired in Kharkiv region
275 families helped in Kherson with targeted help to Kherson residents.
Karina - We Save Dnipro
9 people evacuated from Zaporizhzhya region frontline territories
69 people staying in Karina’s shelter including 17 children
38 aid packages distributed
Inna Kampen - Krok Z Nadiyeyu
Distributed aid in the 6 embattled cities forming the line of defense behind Bakhmut: Pokrovsk, Siversk, Konstantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Slaviansk.
Provided help to an underserved village of Mospanove.
85 families received help in Berislav, Kherson region.
8 volunteers continue to focus on NIkopol, helping 200 people weekly there
Team continued to conduct support group meetings for IDPs, classes for children.
22.5 tons of aid distributed to 8,320 people
11,000 people received bread across the 40 distribution points
Timur’s Team – Timur and Team
Two trips to dangerous frontline areas:
Delivered 400 sets of hygiene products and 300 food packages to Kivsharivka.
200 packages to Kupiansk Vyzlovi
200 to Tishki and 75 to people with disabilities in Kharkiv.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
Distributed 150 aid packages in Mikhailivka
Distributed 130 aid packages in Ternivka
Pavel’s Team - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
3240 received food package last week at Mykolayiv
Clothing, roof tarps and other aid items distributed in the villages of Shevchenkove, Kotliareve, Voskresens’k.
Andriy’s Team - BF Pomahaem
For the third week in a row, Andriy’s team continues to travel to deoccupied region taking a trip to Snihurivka near Mykolayiv and Marganetz, a city that sits on the right bank of Dnieper and experiences daily bombardments.
58 people including 19 children live in Volos’ke shelter
Marina – Good Give Ukraine
On May 18th, Marina's crew set up a concert for children to mark Vyshyvanka Day.
Supplied 150 food packages and 85 hygiene kits in Zhovti Vody
Dina - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
Distributed aid to 516 families
A team cofounder, Serhiy T brought 500 family aid packages, and 160 children packages to the villages of Seredne, Novosilovka, Sandruholove, and Huty.
Bogdan - Vse Robymo Sami
Food kits distributed directly to 42 families
Bogdan shared with us the story of Nikita, one of the kids in his organization who relies directly on help from Ukraine TrustChain. Nikita loves table tennis, theater and dance choreography. If it wasn’t for our support delivered through Bogdan’s team, Nikita’s family of five would’ve found it much harder to take care of Nikita’s needs.
US Team Milestones
Last week several members of the US team attended the annual fundraiser gala for our close partner Project Kesher in New York. UTC was one of the organizations honored at the event for our work helping people in Ukraine. It was a rare pleasure to finally meet in person with people that we have worked together with for much of the last year. Our sincere gratitude to Project Kesher for all of their work and our partnership.
How to Help
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