November 30, 2022
48,019 people evacuated from danger to date
202 people evacuated this week
13 missions into liberated areas
This is the third week that we start our letter acknowledging the extreme hardship our teams endure due to the absence of electricity, heat, and water. The tone is to the point, and somewhat somber - volunteers have only a few minutes to answer our questions. The time with lights on is precious, as people need to compress all communication, coordination, online research, and charging up of appliances to the brief period that electricity is available. In some regions lights had been out for multiple days, which no doubt impacts those who must wake in twilight on a cold November morning and get back to helping people.
Yet, the spirit of our volunteers is unbroken. In addition to the humanitarian work teams do locally, last week volunteers organized 13 missions into the deoccupied areas, and, as we write this report, 4 more teams are on the way into Kherson region. All of these efforts are made possible by your generous donations. On behalf of our team and our Ukrainian volunteers, we would like to thank our community for the amazing outpouring of support we have seen in November. While the situation in Ukraine remains dire, thanks to these funds, Ukraine Trustchain teams continue to help hundreds of thousands of people in the hardest hit areas of the country.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Alena Prizhebolska’s Team
Alena Prizhebolska who heads up a team in Odesa made a daring trip to Kherson last week. Since access into the region is still restricted due to ongoing demining and other security measures, Alena teamed up with chaplains of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that allowed her to bring help into Khersonshina. She visited the villages to the west of Kherson that witnessed months of bloody war prior to the liberation of Kherson. The roads between villages were littered with burnt civilian cars, trampled bicycles, and destroyed buildings. Alena is heading back into the Kherson region later this week and, using the contacts she acquired on these trips, is working on establishing at least two warming centers.
Natalia’s Team
As we are writing this report, Natalia is again on the road heading to Kherson from Kyiv with 4 cargo vans of aid, roughly enough for 400 families. We will be covering this trip in the upcoming reports.
Karina’s Team
The short time we had to connect with Karina amid the outages was focused on winter preparation, projects aimed at warming people and winterizing their shelters around Bahmut and in the liberated Kherson region.
Karina supported evacuations from key hot zones of the country. 18 people were evacuated from Kherson at first to Dnipro and then to Western Ukraine. 64 people were evacuated from Bahmut. Karina’s vehicles continued to take part in humanitarian convoys going into Kherson. Her shelter still provides housing for 102 people, including 27 children.
Dina’s Team
Last week, Dina distributed 1,200 packages of food. In Dnipro her team operations were substantially affected by power outages that result in short supply of candles and other items needed for distribution. Nevertheless, her team continues to mail aid parcels to vetted refugee recipients. Earlier in the week Serhiy traveled to Lyman distributing aid there. In addition, her team distributed 150 warm blankets in the Kupyansk region.
Dina’s team is preparing for a major distribution of wood stoves. 100 heavy stoves are ready to be distributed in the liberated villages of Kharkiv regions. The team is working with a manufacturer to prepare chimney extensions that are essential to be able to use these stoves in cellars and basements. Her team was also surveying the liberated territories to find suitable locations for warming and charging stations in the Izium region.
Oleksandr’s Team
Oleksandr continued to perform miracles of efficiency supporting 10 teams with targeted funding coming from our team:
Oleksandr Shnurenko traveled to Kherson this week delivering three tons of aid to the distribution center there.
As a reminder, through Oleksandr Davydiuk UTC has supported three teams of Kherson residents that distributed aid during the Russian occupation. Each of the volunteers has quickly had to resolve their basic life situations. One of them, for example, has evacuated his parents and is returning to the city to continue on their volunteer mission. Oleksandr is establishing logistic routes that would allow bring supplies into Kherson. Due to constrained supply, prices are higher in Kherson, and this suggests it would be more efficient to bring in supplies from the outside.
Meanwhile, we continue to support a team in the occupied Nova Kahovka region. Despite intensifying totalitarian control and crackdowns in Russia- controlled territories, our volunteers helped 125 families last week.
Angeliya Clinic continued their important work, this time coming to the Kyiv region to help refugee families there, caring for 43 people total. We were thrilled to learn that a major medical center has agreed to sponsor Angeliya Clinic going forward. We are exploring other potential partnerships with them, but are very happy that our funding has helped this noble organization to close gaps in financing while it was looking for a longer-term partner with greater expertise in healthcare services.
31.5 tons of drinking water were delivered into Mykolayiv where water supply is still disrupted.
Our Odesa volunteers usually prepare food to meet refugees arriving at the Odesa train station. Their report this week captures the struggles with power supply among our volunteers: “Miraculously, our kitchen had power even though electricity was missing for miles around. Due to power outages, evacuation was moved to Saturday, so we had to cancel our trip to the station, but the food was ready. As a result we distributed additional food to refugee families with immobile family members.”
A group of volunteers in Western Ukraine completed a number of trips to Europe vising Chezh Republic, Germany, and Lithuania in order to bring smaller under 2-ton shipments of aid - clothing and hygienic products.
In addition to the Kherson trip, Olekandr Shnurenko delivered 2 tons of vegetables to a rehabilitation center for civilians affected by the invasion, and 2 tons of food to their local refugee assistance centers.
Pavel’s Team
The evacuation dynamics are changing rapidly. Last week Pavel’s team evacuated 120 people.
"Mykolaiv, thank God, is not being bombed now, so the people of Kherson are going to Mykolaiv in the hope that Kherson will be restored. [Mykolayiv is a 1-2 hour drive away from Kherson] Zaporizhia, on the other hand, is being bombed, and because they shot a column of evacuees, the headquarters is being moved to Kryvyi Rih, and now we will take those who are leaving Zaporizhia there."
This was only a fraction of the team’s activities though. The volunteers also distributed aid to 7,985 people. They installed 60 wood stoves, helping recipients fix up roofs as well to preserve heat. They have additionally delivered 12 generators to the Kherson and Mykolayiv regions to power the facilities for an orphanage, rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, and social work centers.
Inna’s Team
Inna distributed 30.1 tons of aid to 9,390 people. 10 tons were directed to 1,500 people in the devastated Kharkiv region. Three tons were brought to 300 families in the Kherson region. 180 families received help in Nikopol’, a town Russia shells daily from across the River.
It’s worth noting that Inna’s team was able to sustain their weekly volume, and continue to prioritize hard-to-access regions, despite the challenges presented by power outages. Even unloading supplies and food from the van is done with flashlights.
Inna still hold community sessions for displaced persons. One of such gatherings can be seen in the photo at the top of this report, where a group came together after bombing. There are no windows in this room, so Inna’s group printed a photo of an open window and made it into a wall hanging. These are opportunities – yes, in the darkness, without water, without heat – to distribute aid and simply be together.
Timur’s Team
Timur's team struggled without electricity or heat for most of the week. They distributed 120 packages around Saltivka and another 200 in Chernkasskiye Tyshki.
On Holodomor Remembrance day, the group gave out hundreds of loaves of fresh bread to people all over the hardest hit parts of Kharkiv.
Andriy’s Team
122 people continue to live in Andriy’s shelters, where they receive three meals a day, access to healthcare and psychological help. Andriy’s warehouse distributed aid to refugees in Dnipro. Our friends from Andriy’s foundation shared a story about how the charity’s office lost power and computers went off. Andiry’s office team then joined the work in the warehouse where the distribution continued under the flashlights. We did not have the final distribution count from the team at the time of writing this report, although usually weekly distributions range between 200 and 400 people.
Kseniia’s Team
After preparing 8 family homes for winter last week, Kseniia and her team returned from Kharkiv into the cold twilight of their Kyiv apartments. Her organization, Livyj Bereh, published final reports on two more homes repaired in the Kyiv region. One was damaged by a rocket landing in the gardens just a few meters away from their homes; the other required a full roof restoration. But her team is set to return to the Kharkiv area to repair dozens of new homes.
In the meantime, the Kherson team we have been supporting through Kseniia is actively working within Kherson distributing aid to roughly 200 families in the surrounding villages. Extreme power outages and connection problems prevented us from getting clarifications on exact locations as our entire exchange with the Kherson volunteer, Svetalana, was condensed into a 72-second voice message.
A Kharkiv volunteer Daria whom we support through Kseniia continued her work. In the short window of connectivity she was able to upload receipts for essential food package including spam, condensed milk, and beans for 100 people. Daria has been spending her days in frontline villages of the liberated territories.
Tetiana’s Team
Tetiana’s group visited a boarding school in the Mykhailivka region to deliver sweets, milk, cocoa, and kasha. As soon as the children who were playing outside saw the team’s car pull up, they all ran and asked for some sweets. The teachers allowed them to give boxes to the children, so that they could bring all of the items inside for teachers to distribute after dinner. The children were overjoyed — they rarely even see candy and dream of dumplings. They plan to deliver the dumplings next week, as children were went home due to threat of bombings, and it is not possible to store them due to issues with electricity.
The team also purchased 10 meters of pipes to install potbelly stoves for the children’s camp “Timurovets,” with the expectation of 2.5 meters for each potbelly stove. Today, they managed to cut one; they’ll cut the rest next week. During the cutting, a stray dog continuously approached the volunteers, and they were forced to close the dog’s eyes with their hands because the dog would not leave.
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.