The agricultural project has begun!
We were completely delighted when our partners, Ukraine TrustChain, confirmed the implementation of the agricultural project for the people of Ukraine. At the moment, we are packing seeds into kits and receiving applications informing us about the need to provide seeds to certain people. This year, the project is called “A Seed of Good for the Victory”. Our wish is that the ones we help enjoy fresh vegetables after planting these seeds and getting the result, as well as savor the victory over their life circumstances, their triumph over stress, and their winning over fear. Providing these seeds, we spread hope for a better tomorrow.
Children of Kherson
Kherson is back on the line sharing that, unfortunately, its shelling never ends. But nothing prevents us from working further, because people are waiting.
Even though Kherson is in the red zone, there is still life here. It certainly differs from life in other cities, but the good thing is that the people here have learned to appreciate the things that matter. According to the latest data, 42,000 persons out of 365,000 are left in the locality. Driving through the empty streets, we would never have thought there were children within the city. In winter we received New Year’s gifts packed and designed for children. We didn’t even know what to do with them. After all, according to our reasoning, all of the children had to be somewhere else, evacuated. Just in case, we announced wishing to hand out presents for children and invited everyone to the distribution. And our surprise knew no bounds when the room was jammed with kids. At that moment, it was decided to organize a children’s program where kids could play with each other, communicate, get more gifts, and have a chance to live a full childhood life. Our team was eager to return the childhood stolen by the war to our Kherson kids. We started organizing Saturday meetings with entertainers who played with the children, spent time talking to them, and handed out some gifts. Every Saturday, the children are thrilled to come to our program. They find new friends there. Smiles appear on their faces again! It is simply incredible!
Children’s smiles are the thing gives us the strength to keep going in the darkness surrounding us. Ever since the “New Year’s gifts” revelation, every time we are asked to help with disinfection, deratization or refueling a generator, we always pay attention to whether the people who called us for help have children in their families. And if they do, we try to make sure and invite them to our program. If it is difficult for our visitors to get to the venue, we bring them by car and take them back home later on. For most of the children, the yard of our center has become their favorite place to spend time while our team has become their second family.
Before reaching Beryslav…
This week our goal was to distribute food packages and bread in the city’s district hospitals and aid centers. The total weight of the humanitarian cargo was about 2500 kg. We also planned to conduct several psychological trainings. We were truly worried about the trip wishing that everything would go well. But it did not go as we have been planning and hoping for.
We did not make it to Beryslav. Out vehicle broke down fifteen kilometers away from it. We were lucky that there was phone coverage available. And a powerful fellow traveler. We were dragged to the nearest village. We all agreed it was all probably meant to be. The Lord sent people on our way who helped and took care of us. And later on we got the most valuable thing for us which is to receive people’s words of gratitude and see tears of happiness in the eyes of those we help.
Here are the words from one of them, a woman from the village of Mylove, Beryslav district, Kherson region: “We have been out of electricity for two years now. We are very grateful to the Foundation for the help provided to us which was firewood, candles, food packages, and fuel. Thanks a lot!”
Trips to Donetsk region
As usual, we have distributed humanitarian aid, e.i. bread, food packages, hygiene kits, and glasses, in several towns of the Donetsk region: Kostyantynivka, Druzhkyvka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk. This time we also helped a family-type orphanage.
Thank you notes from Kharkiv region
Znamianka
“I, Riabovata Iryna Mykhailivna, 62 years old, a pensioner, live with my husband in the village of Znamianka, Kharkiv district, Kharkiv region. Our only income is one pension, and we don’t have enough money. I sincerely thank the ICF “Step with Hope” and the organization “Ukraine TrustChain” for the weekly free loaves of bread, and I wish all the people involved in this honorable cause good health, happiness, well-being in the family, and a peaceful sky above their heads.”
Krasnohrad
Valeriy Lunin is a single pensioner, 78 years old. He lives all alone. After a stroke, he needs to take care of himself, and his pension is not enough to cover some basic needs. He is very grateful for our food parcel help.
Kharkiv, Kamianaya Yaruga and Mala Danylivka
Teenagers from Kharkiv, KamianayaYaruga, and Mala Danylivka are already waiting for the arrival of volunteers from the Step with Hope charitable foundation with their educational classes. This week there were fitness classes and anti-stress gymnastics. As always, with the support of Ukraine TrustChain bread, and also cereals, were distributed free of charge.
Dnipropetrovska oblast
Nikopol district has got its eyeglasses
It has been a very busy week. In addition to the distribution of food and drinking water, we organized an ophthalmologist’s visit. We could not even imagine how popular this service would be. We noticed that the farther into the region we went, the more obvious and acute the need was. Restoring Vision is helping us to solve this problem.
Residents of remote villages are very neglected in terms of health. The medical infrastructure has been totally destroyed. The lack of transport links and roads in general has put a full stop even to commercial projects that used to take place in these settlements occasionally.
The villages are dehydrated, and help is hardly ever delivered due to the poor roads and the small number of these settlements.
Ophthalmologist’s appointments were also organized in the village of Oleksandrivka, Maksymivka and Krynychuvati.
Water and food distribution was organized in the village of Zakamyantsi, Nikopol district. We distributed 60 packs of water and 60 food packages.
We also visited the village of Sholokhovo again, to distribute food packages and water.
Food and drinking water were also distributed in the villages of Mendeliivka, Myslyvske and Krynychuvate. We also distributed food and drinking water in the village of Maksymivka.
In total, 800 people received aid this week:
550 pairs of glasses, 300 bags of food, 600 bottles of water, 6 packages of diapers, 2 wheelchairs and 20 packages of sweets for children.
Marhanets
This week we also reached Marhanets in order to distribute water and food vital for the people. The city has suffered greatly from the war, but everyone is motivated by the hope for revival.
Kamianske
The work of the volunteer center in the Kamianske district is so diverse that everyone who becomes a volunteer seems to be sure to find something to their liking. So, what were they up to this week?
– receiving and distributing bread;
– delivering bread, food, and humanitarian aid to the volunteer centers and distribution points in Kamianske for the internally displaced people, and families if difficult life circumstances, to the hospital and for the IDP volunteers, as well as to the House of Mercy;
– humanitarian aid delivery around Kamianske (left and right bank); from Dnipro to Kamianske;
– giving charity lunches;
– organizing of comprehensive, group psycho-social assistance;
– running a massage room;
– selecting and distributing eyeglasses;
– organizing charity haircuts for internally displaced people.
Surely, we wouldn’t leave you without words of gratitude:
“I, Olga Grygorivna Visolova, am 85 years old. I came from the city of Toretsk, Donetsk region. I moved to Kamianske in April 2022. I’m living in this town with my neighbor from Toretsk. I am grateful to the ICF Step with Hope and the Ukraine TrustChain organization for the help that supports us in these times of hardship”
As for the specialists of the psycho-social assistance department, they are actively working on healing souls.
We held an interesting event aimed at overcoming stress through Art Therapy. People opened up, talked, created, and gained hope for the best.
This time, native speakers, that is our guests from Canada, were invited to our English Club. A meeting with them was delightful and educational.
On the weekend, the volunteers of the ICF “Step with Hope” organized a fascinating “Music Night” event. People sang, played musical instruments, listened, and enjoyed wonderful music. It was a kind of a music therapy session in action 👌
This time the collection of clothing and footwear for IDPs and low-income families was held on a grand scale. People brought too many things to fit in a small minibus, so we had to use a larger vehicle to hold it all up. We must confess, that our people are simply incredible ♥️ One of the ladies brought a certain amount of neatly folded things, yet, to top it all she put each of the items into a separate bag with a label on it that said what piece of clothing was inside, including its size, waist circumference and condition. When you hold such packages in your hands, you realize that kindness remains one of the highest values in the world. We are deeply thankful to everyone who participated in the collection with their donations.
