Firewood for Barvinkove, Kharkiv Oblast
As usual, this week we were delivering firewood to the areas that suffer from lack of heating and where people simply cannot buy material to heat their homes with, due to lack of money. This time, our journey led to the village of Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region, near which all the green areas have been mined, meaning that people basically don’t have any chance of getting firewood on their own. The 17 families we had already helped were looking forward to seeing us. But in addition to them, we found out that there were also many more people in the village who belong to the vulnerable categories: lonely retired people, disabled pensioners, and families who have lost their breadwinner. Thus,later on we planned to help all those in need, which turned out to be 68 families! And we did it!
Thanks to the help of our sponsors, the Ukraine TrustChain, two large trucks and grain trucks with trailers were used to deliver firewood to those people. Since the roads we were driving on were not paved, and the weather conditions left much to be desired (there was no more snow, but the temperature fluctuated around 0 degrees, leaving the ground a mere mess of earth and clay), we were moving slowly yet confidently. On some sections of the road, the loaded vehicles were driving at a 45-degree angle to the road. It was hard, scary, and incomprehensible. Several times the vehicles got stuck in mud and puddles, but the desire to help people left us no choice so we moved forward. In the end, we successfully managed to deliver the firewood, so that all of the 68 families will have something to heat their homes with.
20 kilometers to the east…
And 20 kilometers east of the village with the flowery name of Barvinkove (literally translated as Periwinkle’s), horror is taking place. The proximity to the front line and the constant sounds of shelling make life in this area incredibly difficult. A family of disabled people lives there. At the moment, the man, once handsome and strong-willed, has no legs, and his wife, a woman with unforgettable eyes and a smile, can only move around the house with a walker. These people are helpless. Completely. Totally deprived of the right to be saved in the event of heavy shelling, as they will not be able to cope with it all. They live solely on their pension, which is spent on medicines. They have no children and no one else to help them. They are staying in one small room heated by a wood-burning stove. Other rooms of the half-destroyed house are left without heating. Our help in the form of firewood and food supplies was vital for them. One cannot help weaping and having goosebumps while receiving the words of gratitude from people like these.
The undefeated Kherson
While we are transporting firewood to the north of Ukraine, in the south of our homeland, the volunteers are fighting rats and the consequences of draining the Kakhovka reservoir. Kherson suffers from rats and fungus on the walls of houses that were flooded with water. With the onset of winter cold and winds in January and February, the situation is getting worse, and our volunteers are working almost seven days a week to eliminate the consequences of the terrible environmental disaster. Disinfection, disinfestation, drainage, generator, flooding, mice gnawed it through, pipe bursting… – this is only a small part of the basic daily vocabulary of the volunteers working in the Kherson direction areas. We also periodically help to evacuate people from remote places to the Kherson city. These actions are preplanned in advance and conducted without any disclosure until the person is brought to safety.
We wish everyone to have the same hope for the best as the residents of Kherson do. The ones, who survived the occupation and are now happy to live, no matter the danger, in still Ukrainian hero city of Kherson!
Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Nikolaevka, Druzhkivka, Konstantinovka and Novoocheretovate being served food
This time, the purpose of the trip to these settlements was to distribute humanitarian aid which included bread, glasses, diapers and food packages. We distributed 60 food parcels to the villages of Volnovakha district, which came in handy as people were looking forward to them.
We also met an incredibly hopeful elderly woman, Natalia Alekseevna, who had broken her leg and now is unable to get out of bed. Her house was badly damaged by another shelling so that the windows were left with no glass in them and had to be boarded up. And that charming lady was lying there smiling at us, thanking us for the diapers, shining with happiness caused by the fact that we came at all.
Grateful Kharkiv region with bread in hands
This is exactly how the city and its surroundings look to us: “with hands holding bread and hearts filled with gratefulness”. This is where people are warmly thankful for a mere loaf of bread. We distribute the same bread every week, but not to the same people. And each time we receive gratitude expressed in different ways coming from all of them. Volodymyr Oleksandrovych, a pensioner from Znamenka, thanks us for every loaf of bread he has been receiving for several weeks now, which helps him save a lot of money, as he lives all by himself and one loaf of bread is enough to keep him alive for several days. Tamara Alekseevna, a disabled woman (group 2), who lives in Merefa and is a bedridden due to a fractured hip neck, wrote us a note with words of gratitude that we simply have no right to hide from you: “Please accept my deepest gratitude for your concern for people like me. I am grateful to everyone: those who bake the bread, those who bring it here, and those who deliver it. In wartime, such help is extremely crucial. I wish everyone health, peace and humaneness. Thank you all!” Incredible people from Krasnograd: Ivan Pavlovich, an 85-year-old, a lonely man who can only move around the house, and Viktor Ivanovich, a 72-year-old disabled man and has poor eyesight, are especially grateful for the help with bread.
Creative meetings in Kharkiv: Kammiana Yaruga and Mala Danylivka
We love traveling a lot. We take is as an opportunity to help new people, the ones that you meet by chance while traveling. This time it was exactly like that. We traveled to different cities and routes: Kharkiv, Kamianna Yaruga – Kharkiv – Kamianna Yaruga, Mala Danylivka – Dergachi – Kharkiv.
On Saturday, classes were held with children and teenagers and afterwards bread was distributed to people in need with the support of the Ukraine TrustChain.
On Sunday, a meeting was organized and humanitarian aid was distributed with the support of the Good Samaritan Charitable Foundation and the Ukraine TrustChain.
We will not forget the eyes of the children to whom we gave hope that everything will soon change for the better.
Humanitarian shock in Nikopol
We have not seen anything like this for a long time. While distributing food and water kits in Nikopol, we were prepared for anything, but what awaited us on this trip made us worry.
We were finally able to organize a project to distribute eye-glasses in two villages in the Nikopol district: Myslivske and Mendeleivka. We distributed the total of 70 pairs of glasses!
This project has received an unexpectedly huge emotional response from people. They keep calling us and asking us to come. There are a lot of people waiting for our next visit. But the reasons for this phenomenon made us very sad.
There is a countless amount people with poor health. Many of them are rapidly losing their eyesight because they have no opportunity, either practical or financial, to see an ophthalmologist. There is no transportation to the city. People are asking for help, and we are thrilled to provide it.
Pavlohrad won’t be freezing anymore
As you can imagine, in each region we try to bring the type of help that is most needed. Thus, we made trips to Pavlohrad – Dnipro – Ternivka to receive, transport and hand out humanitarian aid that included warm clothes for children, men and women. Also, 260kg of food, diapers and 600 loaves of bread were distributed.
We have helped 496 internally displaced persons, which is very gratifying. In Pavlohrad, there were also warm hugs, teary eyes and warm words of thanksgiving. Lyudmila Yurievna, an IDP from the village of Paraskoviivka, Bakhmut district, who moved with her husband to Pavlohrad in August 2022, simply showered us with words of gratitude. Her husband was ill and had his two legs amputated. After getting help from us, Lyudmila wrote: “We are very thankful for the opportunity to receive the most necessary things for free. We will definitely come back for the bread. We are deeply grateful to everyone who helps us in these difficult circumstances!”
Friendly Sinelnikovo
In addition to the weekly programs at the Distribution Center in Synelnykove, this week our volunteers visited the elderly and provided them not only with the food, but with the special time of socializing to give those people hope for a brighter future.
Diverse Kryvyi Rih
Our volunteers in Kryvyi Rih can never sit still at all. These are some of the young men and women whose motto in life is “help the others”. Places they have reached this week are the following:
– Kryvyi Rih – Beryslav, Kherson region;
– Kryvyi Rih – Sofiyivka – Dnipro.
The purpose of the trips was:
– delivery of firewood and technical means of survival;
– receiving and delivering humanitarian aid to the volunteer centers;
– receiving bread and distributing it to the temporarily displaced people, people in difficult life circumstances, victims of war, staying in the city hospitals and shelters for the homeless in Kryvyi Rih.
The total weight of the humanitarian aid was about 2,500 kg.
Multifunctional Kamianske
This volunteer center is busy like a beehive, always full of people, where everyone knows exactly what they are doing and has a common goal: to help.
Here’s what they have been doing in Kamianske this week:
– receiving and distributing bread in Kamianske;
– delivering bread, food and humanitarian aid to volunteer centers and distribution points in Kamianske;
– distributing food packages (30 pieces);
– organizing charity dinners;
– organizing of comprehensive group psychosocial support;
– having a massage room operating;
– selecting and distributing eyeglasses among the locals;
– distributing clothes for internally displaced persons, people in complicated life circumstances and local population;
– providing“Healing of mental traumas” psychosocial assistance.
Of course, we can’t ignore people’s feedback:
“My name’s Olena, I am 44 years old and I am a resident of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. In April 2022, after a powerful shelling, the windows and doors in our house were blown out, and the roof burned down. My husband and I packed our things and left our home. We were really sad about having to leave. At the moment we are renting an apartment. While giving thanks to the sponsors, I’d like to say that you are doing a great job for the IDPs who were left without support and homes. Thank you!”
A Festive Day of Kindness in the Dnipro Shelter
Once again, our superhero Teddy Bear brings warm emotions to children and their parents. In one of Dnipro’s sheltered housing complexes for young internally displaced persons from the East of Ukraine, we organized a fest of joy and smiles. The event was attended by about 20 children aged 4 to 13 accompanied by their parents. None of the participants remained indifferent to what was happening on stage. The adaptation of the Snow Queen’s story with the Teddy Bear’s author additions was received with a bang, and the sweet bear hugs touched the audience so much that they did not want to let Teddy, the main character, go for a long time. Warm embraces, sincere thanks, kind words of support and sparkly silver confetti at the end of the program made everyone plunge into a state of calm for at least two hours, forgetting about the war and enjoying life together.
Thus, over the past week we helped 7860 people, in addition to that 9500 people received bread. We also distributed 21000 kg of food and delivered firewood in 2 large vehicles with trailers.
