September 7, 2022
Forty Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Four People Evacuated
708 people evacuated this week
School Reconstruction and Reopening in Chernihiv
September 1st marks the first day of school in Ukraine. We were grateful to see our efforts in Chernihiv pay off with 3 schools in the city and 1 school in a village near Chernihiv set to reopen. The school year started with the traditional celebrations, although rather than proceeding straight to studying, students are taken to schools in shifts to go through critically important evacuation drills, preparing for potential air raid sirens.
Ukraine TrustChain continues to raise money for the remaining tasks that need to be closed off in the near future within those schools. We would like to thank an amazing partner “Striving for All” that has stepped up in a big way and taken on the majority of expenses required to reopen school number 14. And of course we are grateful to Olga Chizhova from Ukrainian Prism volunteer organization that has identified, managed, fundraised and moved this project across the finish line. NBC made it to school reopenings celebrations, and although the mention of Ukraine TrustChain didn’t make it into the final footage, we still feel this a great video to watch to get a better feel for the immense projects Ukrainian volunteers are pulling off to keep Ukraine going.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Andriy’s team evacuated 8 people out of Marhanets, and 15 more were moved last week from Dnipro shelters to Holland and Austria. 187 people continued to live in the two shelters Andriy’s organization runs. Andriy’s warehouse continued to distribute aid in Dnipro and a major aid push was planned to the Zaporizhzhya region which we hope to talk about in the next letter. Also together with Dina Tkachenko, Andriy’s team has been reorganizing a major medical supplies shipment that we’ve been distributing to medical institutions in Kharkiv and Dnipro.
Pavel’s wife Elena organized multiple large events for kids last week to mark the beginning of the school year. In Torun the event was attended by 200 people. Another event took place in the village of Lopushnoy, where Elena distributed gift packages generously provided by Samaritan’s Purse aid organization. Finally, she organized an event for orphans in Zakarpattya. Here is what she wrote:
We conducted this event for orphaned children from Cheryhiv— 43 kids that for two months have been going through rehabilitation in Zakarpattya. The kids are just wonderful; sadly, some of them have mental impairments. They were hugging, playing, feeling joy and fun. If there are people who would like to adopt a child, they are amazing kids. Thanks to these events we ourselves renew, recharge with new emotions, reevaluate our lives, because children inspire change and heal our hearts, and motivate us to reach new victories.
We are not sure that anybody reading this letter would be in a position to explore adoption of these children, but we feel compelled to pass on this message.
In the meantime, Pavel’s drivers continued their relentless struggle to evacuate people out of the harm’s way. Last week they evacuated 577 people, 200 of them children from Zaporizhzhya, Mykolayiv and Vinnitsa regions, as well as completed one trip to Kharkiv. Pavel continued to explore routes to deliver humanitarian aid into the red zones, where logistic chains are not functioning due to ongoing combat.
Last week, Natalia was recognized with an award from the Foundation of Law-enforcement Organization for her volunteer efforts. In the meantime she procured the goods that are being shipped to the hot zones of the East and South this week.
As Dina Tkachenko traveled to the west of the country her teams in Poltava, Kremenchug, Kanev, Kharkiv and Krasnokutsk continued to provide aid to the displaced population serving 1,490 families.
Aid distribution in Kremenchuk. Yulia helps over 1,500 displaced Ukrainians weekly by providing aid, clothing, medicine, and other resources.
Karina’s team evacuated 98 people last week. Meanwhile, her shelter continued to host 76 people. This simple sentence does not capture the full human complexity of hosting 76 refugees, which includes 3 infants and, as we learned last week, a hamster as well. The shelter is not equipped with a proper kitchen and cooking food required ongoing coordination. Currently the shelter rents kitchen space at a nearby school with half of the costs of groceries covered by the refugees themselves.
Despite these complexities, Karina remains extremely active and is constantly looking for new ways to help. She procured and helped deliver medicine for 31 families in Bahmut and Nikopol and provided food to 66 families. The latter was made possible by free aid from partner organizations and was not paid by UTC funds.
In the future Karina is thinking about helping some underprivileged families with reconstruction of their homes ahead of the colder months.
Inna’s team managed to distributed 39.5 tons of goods to 9,710 families across 25 locations. 920 of those people were in towns with ongoing battles. The risks that the volunteers take to deliver food and hygienic products into those communities are comparable to the risks Ukrainian soldiers face and take on the frontlines.
This week Timur’s team has braved intense fighting to make it to the villages in the "gray" zone, close to the front lines. Bezryki and Pechenigi were added to our regular distribution points in Tishki and Tsirkunovi. At both locations, 580 packages of aid were distributed, in addition to 300 other packages. Additionally, Timur’s team delivered 100 packages of aid to the children's hospital in the Kharkiv region. Timur’s team completed 10 relatively short-distance evacuations as, with the approaching cold, some residents are giving up on spending the winter at their homes after months of shelling.
Timur’s team’s aid distribution
The teams we support through Oleksandr Davydiuk continued their efforts.
The group run by Pavlo Vystratenko (Volunteers SDK) delivered 2 tons of aid into Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka and Slovyansk — one of the key directions of Ruscist offensive.
The Kyiv-based group of Oleksand Shnurenko delivered food and clothing to Sumy regio. They helped deliver medicine to a small town hospital at the city of Kozelets near Chernihiv.
Mobile clinic Angeliya went to the Brovary area - a formerly occupied area to the east of Kyiv. There, the clinic provided services to 51 people. The mobile clinic is able to bring different specialists on each trip, and this time a psychologist traveled. It was not clear to the Yuriy Bondarenko who usually schedules people for regular medical procedures how to work with a psychologist, but the demand to talk to a psychologist was overwhelming with long lines of people forming to visit with him.
Mykolayiv volunteers working with Vladislav Kucheryavenko delivered 35 tons of water. They’ve asked us for $12,000 to buy a used truck to increase the amount of drinking water brought into the city, but it was something we couldn’t afford at the current level of spending and donations.
A new project we supported was a team of Oleksandr Koropetz who needed some help with transportation of aid they sourced from Chasiv Yar - close to the Donetsk region frontline and food delivery for the villages of Lupareve and Lymana next to Mykolayiv.
Water distribution in Mykolaiv
Kseniia’s volunteer org Livyj Bereh was wrapping up roof construction in the villages of Zahalci and Kachaly in Kyiv region as well as last tasks on school renovation in Olizarivka. They were debating whether they have enough resources, both human and financial, at the moment to take on a new village. Meanwhile, the volunteers in the village of Panchevo continued to distribute aid — part of which Kseniia had delivered a week earlier.
This week Tetiana distributed aid to 45 families with children with disabilities and older folks not capable of coming out to get help on their own. She also mailed aid packages to 5 families in need far away from Smila.
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.