September 7, 2023
55,667 people evacuated from danger to date
196 people evacuated from danger this week
36 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
September 1st is the first day of school in Ukraine. While there were many other themes and projects in the life of Ukrainian volunteers last week, September 1st took the center stage despite ongoing battles and rocket attacks on peaceful cities. Most teams we support run children’s programs as part of their efforts and made special preparations for this school year. Dina’s team organized games and music at their distribution locations, as well as gave sweet treats to all school-age children and school supplies to incoming first-graders. Timur arranged to distribute gifts at the “First Bell” ceremony in Kharkiv, other teams helped children in Kremenchuk, Dnipro, Mykolaiv etc.
These celebrations that used to take place at 9am sharp across the country are now organized more sporadically a day later or earlier or at odd hours of the day and at times are completely suspended. This is done, of course, to make it harder for Russians to bomb civilians, as nobody in Ukraine would put it past Russia at this point to hit a school opening ceremony. Despite the grim context, these celebrations are true holidays – a meaningful hope for Ukrainian people. Ukraine TrustChain is proud of our volunteers' sustained efforts to rebuild schools and support Ukrainian children who have suffered so immensely. The timely gift of school supplies or help with repairing school facilities brings joy and real benefit to many families.
See below for additional stories on this subject.
Join us for a Ukraine TrustChain volunteer celebration in the Chicago area
We are incredibly excited to announce that Dina Tkachenko, the founder of Vilny Lyudi-Vilna Kraina will be visiting the US for the first time this month. Come meet Dina in person and hear her discuss her work in Ukraine. The meeting will take place at Smetana Restaurant at 976 Harlem Ave, Glenview, IL, at 11am, on September 16, 2023. In addition to meeting Dina, you’ll be able to meet our US-based volunteers, hear Daniil sing some retro Ukrainian songs, and participate in a silent auction to help raise money for Ukraine. Please click here for more information and to RSVP. We hope to see you there!
Stories
Reopening of Boromlia School (narrated by UTC founder, Daniil, traveling in Ukraine)
On September 1st, I traveled to the Sumy region to see the reopening of the school in the town of Boromlia. The school was under Russian occupation for only a few weeks, but the invaders robbed the school of all of its equipment, then trashed the premises and finally, during combat, destroyed the building that housed its boilers/heat system. Thanks to the incredible fundraising drive by the Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan and donations from the @ukrainetrustchain community, we were able to restore the school's heating system. The work was supervised and monitored by Kseniia and Vlad from the Livyj Bereh. Although the school is still finishing up its bomb shelter, the heating system has been completed and tested. The school is now on track to full in-person reopening in October.
As a result, on September 1st, they were able to hold the traditional "First Bell" celebration, marking the start of the school year. 36 7-year-olds headed to school for the first time. They were excited for their new backpacks, teachers, and gifts. And I couldn't stop feeling how tragic it was that their first school experience was taking place with enemy artillery in position only 25 miles away. They read poems about the war, the armed forces, and peace and victory – these were not thoughts I had had at age seven.
This is the sixth school UTC has helped rebuild since the start of the full-scale invasion. We checked in with our Chernihiv volunteers and confirmed that all of the schools we helped rebuild last year have opened their doors this year as well.
Toretsk hospital story
In our August 10th newsletter we shared the story of nurses in Toretsk who travel by foot to see 230+ palliative patients living under daily bombardments 5 miles away from the frontline. Upon learning about this, our trusted partner, Project Kesher proposed a joint initiative to provide electric bicycles to the hospital’s nurses to facilitate home visits. We did not anticipate the degree of gratitude and excitement with which hospital staff reacted to our proposal. They confirmed that this would be a major improvement in nurses’ safety while allowing them to reach more patients.
Project Kesher Ukraine's Women's Opportunity Fund and Vlada Nedak, who heads "Project Kesher Ukraine'' procured the bicycles manufactured locally in Krivyi Rih in Ukraine. Dobra Sprava - a powerful evacuation team that established contacts with Toretsk first - took upon themselves to deliver the bikes. The town is too dangerous and doesn’t have a functioning post office, so the involvement of volunteers was essential. The entire process took about three weeks. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Vlada Nedak, Karyn Gershon (Project Kesher), and the courageous team at Dobra Sprava, who played a pivotal role in delivering all ten e-bikes to Toretsk, making this initiative possible.
Operations in the Occupied Territories
More than 25 people were evacuated from the Russian-occupied left bank, most of them with mobility issues or serious illness. We also supported aid distribution in 5 Russia-occupied towns, helping 285 families.
Meeting Ukrainian Volunteers (Narrated by UTC Founder, Traveling in Ukraine)
Yesterday, I returned to the US after two and a half weeks in Ukraine. During this time I visited with 20 volunteer teams in 6 cities of Ukraine including Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa and others. We’ve collected a lot of information, and prospective initiatives for various scenarios in the upcoming months. My main goal there was to share with volunteers how proud we are to support them. Despite difficult personal economic situations and the uncertainty of the war, each volunteer with whom we started working in the first week of the invasion is still committed to volunteer work, pouring spare time, creativity, and resources into this life-saving work.
Not every person in Ukraine is able to focus on helping others. Although every Ukrainian has a friend or a relative killed or injured in battle, and sirens go off daily, ordinary citizens living far from the battlefield tend to go about their daily lives, concentrating on their jobs and families.This is understandable, but it is something that is very hard to accept for most of our volunteers who neglect their normal lives in order to help others. And so it is especially important for the Ukrainian volunteers to feel our support.
While we feel so much gratitude for the volunteers who put their lives on hold and at risk, they simultaneously feel gratitude for all of your support. It is hard to find the words of the right temperature, to fully communicate this gratitude that volunteer teams have unanimously asked me to pass to all of you reading this newsletter.
Team summaries
Ihor Dobra Sprava (“Good Cause”)
15 trips evacuating 169 people from Kherson and Kostantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatrosk, Toretsk in Donetsk region
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Pavlo V (Dnipro): delivered 730 kg of food kits to Kherson and the Kherson Region and 570 loaves of bread to the Dnipropetrovsk Region.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): transported 28 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 7 tons of water from Mykolaiv to Kherson.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 2,000 people.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): held 2 art therapy sessions for 28 children with disabilities and children of military families, as well as a psycho-emotional recovery camp for 29 teenagers. Distributed food to 123 people with disabilities.
Natalia B: helped 9 families with children with disabilities in Kherson.
NGO Angelia
Angelia's team delivered humanitarian aid to Kramatorsk and Virnopillia in the Donetsk region. One minibus (3-4 tons) was delivered.
Kseniia’s Team - NGO Livyj Bereh
5 more roofs completed in Kharkiv region
Darya T made two trips to Kupyansk region, prospecting humanitarian aid situation in Kindrashivka (need food and sweets), Zapadne, Peshane and bringing in 350 packages to Podoly and Peetropavlivka. All of these villages are inside combat zones in the Kupyansk direction.
Svitlana helped 60 families in Kherson.
Natasha - Vysnia Volunteer Center
Tetiana P from Kryvyi Rih delivered aid to 83 families. Delivery included canning jars to store the vegetables harvested as part of our agrarian project.
Karina - We Save Dnipro
76 people live in the shelter.
2 families with many children (17 people total) evacuated from Nikopol. Their husbands/fathers are in the army and Karina’s team found them an apartment in Dnipro and has been supporting them.
Delivered 70 packages of humanitarian aid to Zaporizhzhya, Kryvyi Rih, and Nikopol
Distributed 34 packages of school supplies to displaced children starting school
Inna’s Team
24.5 tons of aid distributed to 8,520 people across 42 villages and towns
9,500 people received bread.
15 trips or missions in frontline cities and danger zones.
Continued flood relief operations in Kherson:
Disinfected 10 spaces, including 4 large multi-family basements
Installed 2 dehumidifiers
Performed 30 refuelings and 4 oil changes
Team reported that a large 8-story apartment building was reopened thanks to multiple weeks of disinfection
2 more trips to Berislav delivering 180 packages
Aid delivered to Kostyantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorks, Slovyansk, Mykolayivks - key battered frontline outposts behind Eastern frontline
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
Distributed 50 aid packages to elderly and residents with disabilities in Smila via the department of social services
Distributed food in the community center in Mykhailivka, Cherkasy region
Delivered medicine hygiene products and medical equipment to a hospital in Kyiv
Timur’s Team-Timur and Team
Delivered 350 packages to Saltivka, Kharkiv
Brought 150 packages as well as school supplies to Kulynychi
Pavel and Olena - Touch of Heart and Dawn of Hope
1,313 people received packages at Mykolaiv office
Delivered 2 tons of water to Yakovlivka and Novopavlivske
Andriy - BF Pomahaem
232 families received help in Novovasylivka, Zaporizhzhya
1,498 refugee families received aid in Dnipro
Marina – Good Give Ukraine
Marina distributed 124 food and hygiene aid sets in Zhovti Vody to displaced people.
Sent 26 packages to families all over Ukraine who suffered from war.
Dina - Vilni Liudy – Vilna Krayina
Distributed 300 humanitarian aid packages across the organizations refugee support centers
Sergey T delivered 1,000 packages (8 tons) to the Izyum area
Delivered 3 tons of dog food to a shelter housing dogs evacuated from Bakhmut
Provided treats to 509 school children and school supplies to 114 first-graders displaced by war
Continue supplying the art therapy club in Kremenchuk with snacks
Bogdan - Vse robymo sami
42 families received food packages this week through Bogdan's organization.
Following the holidays, the children's NGO "We do it ourselves" has resumed the activities of all its groups: children have begun using the psychological relaxation room and have started rehearsing choreography.
The children enjoyed a trip to the circus as part of the program.
Progress continues at the Inclusive Children’s Center, with electricity now installed in the future soup kitchen area. This week, all necessary stairs for the Center were constructed, and the walls have been prepared for painting in the upcoming days.
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.