October 26, 2022
47,101 people evacuated from danger to date
433 people evacuated this week
Last weekend it was warm in Kyiv and Dnipro, but rather than taking a stroll through the quiet street, watching the leaves change color, our teams raced against the clock, trying to deliver as much assistance as possible before the onset of winter. These efforts are made difficult by constant power outages and increasingly frequent air raid sirens. Yet in the last week alone our teams distributed aid to more than 20,000 people, many of them in the liberated territories, still in danger from Russia’s shelling. We continue to admire the unceasing creativity of their efforts and continued generosity of our community in the US and Europe. Though we continue to spend more money than comes in, we still think that it is important to deploy and evacuate as many people as possible now before the winter cold sets in. Thank you for every single donation you’ve made. Please consider switching to the monthly donation option, so that we can plan better for the five difficult months ahead of us.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Inna’s Team
Inna Kampen’s group again exceeded the high standard they had previously set of efficient use of funds. With just $3,000 spent mostly on transportation costs, Inna was able to bring in 48 tons of aid that was distributed to 16,000 people last week. There were three trips into the liberated territories where the situation remains dire. We are planning to write in more details about these trips to Kupiansk, Velykyi Burluk, in our social media postings. One of the stories that got through our defenses this time came from a volunteer on her team based in Nikopol. This time Russian shells landed across the street from his house hitting the neighbor’s house and wounding a 6-year-old girl who despite all the doctors’ efforts, lost both of her legs.
Inna’s team continues to travel to Nikopol, Zaporizhzhya, and Kriviy Rih. What differentiates this team is meticulous attention to supporting and motivating volunteers through thought out support meetings, coaching sessions and leadership visits that allow volunteers to keep going despite the stress and hardships they experience daily.
Oleksandr’s Team
Oleksandr Davydyuk continues to support multiple teams with nimble targeted donations. Olekandr coordinates his work from Lutsk in Western Ukraine. Although Lutsk has been relatively quiet in the last few months, over the weekend Lutsk was hit by three rockets that targeted civilian infrastructure. The electricity was restored a day later, and Oleksandr was able to upload the reports:
In the last two weeks, Pavlo Vystratenko’s fearless team from Dnipro brought more than 4 tons of aid to Slovyansk and three tons to particularly dangerous spots only 15 miles away from the active frontline to Druzhkivka and Kostyantynivka. In addition to these effort, Pavlo continues to bring food to Dnipro shelters for homeless and abandoned people with severe disabilities.
Oleksnadr forwards help to Oleksandr Shnurenko’s group around Kyiv. In addition to supporting families with children with disabilities, in the last week Shnurenko’s group also helped transport food donated by local farmers to nearby warming stations operating in Kyiv regions. Warming stations are becoming an important part of the strategy to give Ukrainians access to warm food and safe spaces, even if the energy situation remains tumultuous due to Russia’s terrorism against civilian infrastructure.
Oleksandr Shnurenko’s group also delivered 20 tons of aid to a distribution center in Chernihiv. This aid will be redirected to the Kherson and Donetsk regions in the coming week.
Mobile clinic Angelia traveled to the village of Kalyta where they provided health services to 56 people. Specialists traveling with the clinic this time included a physician, ENT, dentist, gynecologist and a physical therapist.
Vladyslav’s team transported 39 tons of drinking water in Mykolayiv last week.
A new team of Maksym (previously part of Oleksandr Shnurenko’s team) delivered 4 tons of aid from Chernivtsi to Izium.
Two teams continue to provide art therapy to children. Foundation Star of Hope conducts a series of ceramics and pottery classes for children from refugee families. We are also supporting a children’s center in Lviv helping them with appliances and supporting transportation of humanitarian aid from Poland.
Despite escalating danger on the Kherson battlefield, we are supporting four teams in Kherson who help about 200 people per week in Kherson and 120 in Kahovka. We have other ways of pushing aid into the occupied territories through other team leaders as well.
Timur’s Team
This week Timur’s team has delivered over 500 packages to Lukiantsi, 4 km away from Russian border, and Tsirkuni. Timur’s team also delivered much-needed aid to a local children's hospital. Along with basic aid, the group delivered stuffed toys and some coloring materials. This is in addition to the regular distribution of aid around Saltivka of 320 packages of humanitarian aid which includes supplies for the most vulnerable population, bedridden seniors.
The team doesn't usually do evacuations but sometimes there is no one else available to help. A special request of evacuation from Kupiansk was also successfully completed and a bedridden senior is now in a much safer area with family. We will be reposting this story to our feed in the coming week.
Kseniia’s Team
Livyj Bereh - the group founded by Kseniia continued to deliver aid to villages right in the lethal gray zone, a strip of land a couple of miles wide sitting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies north of Kupiansk. The areas are too risky for any regular delivery and our volunteers are the only groups that were able to make it into these villages.
Meanwhile, Kherson volunteers supported the elderly and families with children in the occupied city. With the enactment of martial law in those areas these activities are becoming increasingly risky, but the Kherson volunteers refuse to leave persist with their mission, helping 100-150 families weekly.
These two initiatives in Kherson and Kharkiv are the primary use for UTC donated funds, but Kseniia’s team is always on the move and continues to push a number of other projects. The roof repairs are at this point are mostly completed in time for the late autumn rains. Kseniia and Vlad meticulously revisited the building sites collecting remaining roofing materials which would still be enough to fix a few more roofs.
Pavel’s Team
Pavel and Olena’s team continued to focus on evacuations, moving 328 people, including 96 children out of danger zones in the Mykolayiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv region. Additionally Pavel’s team continues to provide humanitarian aid to nursing homes, such as “Silver Age” - which currently functions as a shelter for the elderly people.
Dina’s Team
This week, Dina’s team helped 1,475 families. Yulia in Kremenchuk held an event for displaced children to boost their moods, offer a chance to play, and support their mental health. Ukraine TrustChain helped to fund 54 gifts for the children’s event. In Poltava, as cold, wet weather approaches, volunteers distributed 98 blankets to displaced people.
In addition, a cofounder of Dina’s organization, Serhiy traveled to some of the most dangerous places in Ukraine, to Bahmut and Lyman on two different occasions. We have republished some jarring images from these trips on our social media pages. The two towns have been ravaged by Russia, they are bombed daily, but the Ukrainian army in those continues to resist massive continuous attacks by Russian forces. Remaining residents live underground, since the windows of their apartments are all blown out, and it is cold and damp. People cook over open flame on makeshift stoves outside in the short hours between bombardments.
Karina’s Team
97 people stay in the shelter run by Karina’s team. As Ukraine continues to struggle with intermittent power outages due to assaults on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, Karina’s team is taking additional measures to winterize the space and prepare for prolonged power outages. Additional steps also need to take place to disinfect the bedrooms within the shelter, as people living there start to succumb to flu and other seasonal illnesses.
Karina’s team managed to evacuate 103 people, 18 of whom made it all the way out from the occupied Tokmak deep in the Russian occupied territories.
Tetiana’s Team
This week Tetiana’s team distributed aid in Smila. They bought inexpensive local in-season produce to include in the aid packages, and were able to distribute to even more people. This week has been particularly difficult for the team. Early in the week, Tetiana’s sister had to be taken to a hospital for an emergency delivery. Friday night Tetiana’s neighborhood was under attack by the kamikaze drones. She and her family stayed up at night trying to keep safe, went to a funeral of a relative the next morning, and then still distributed aid to 94 families that same afternoon.
US Team
We have so much appreciated seeing the incredible photographs of support and solidarity coming from the Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan’s fundraiser from October 16th. We have shared a few here.
We have also appreciated the support of schools, communities, and children across the world who have written messages of hope and encouragement, such as these below from students of Yokohama International School written to Ukrainians surviving war.
How to Help
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