Themes by tag: Chernihiv

At the onset of the full-blown war, Nadiia’s husband stood up to defend the country and joined the Territorial Defense. He was killed while holding the defense of Chernihiv region in March 2022. Three children became fatherless. The house that the man was building for his family was destroyed by the occupiers. Nadiia was offered to sell the land, but she refused because she dreamed of rebuilding the house in memory of her loved one.

Currently, Dobrobat volunteers are helping to restore the house. They have already brought building materials to the construction site.

• dead
• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• women
• Chernihiv

Yurii Zdor took up arms back in 2015, when Russia first attacked Ukraine. For the man, it seemed the only logical decision to make. He fought in different brigades and completed his military service as the 72nd Brigade named after the Black Cossacks member. The fighter was on standby when the full-scale invasion broke out, he has packed up all his belongings. Yurii’s wife Svitlana stayed at home in Chernihiv, and her husband went to Kyiv.

Yurii and his unit took part in heavy battles in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He was seriously wounded and lost his leg while fighting in eastern Ukraine. Yurii’s spouse says that waiting for her husband for stabilization point discharge was the hardest part, then she found he was getting treatment from the intensive care unit and never left him.

Yurii and Svitlana reside in Chernihiv. They are ready to talk to journalists, both offline and online.

• casualties
• military
• Chernihiv

One of the areas of work of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Ukraine is non-technical survey of the territory and clearance of explosives. The DRC work involves training sappers of the State Emergency Service and volunteer civilians to search for explosive ordnance. Since the contaminated areas are quite large, DRC is raising the number of demining specialists who, after completing their training, will get a job in the organization. Deminers work in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions together with the State Emergency Service, because it is sappers who have to remove explosive objects. In addition, the organization provides grant support to those affected by mines or other explosive remnants of war.

For reference: Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s territory has become one of the most contaminated with explosives in the world. According to the UN, it will take dozens of years to demine the country.

• Chernihiv
• Kharkiv
• Kyiv
• Mykolaiv
• demining

On October 7, a school reconstructed by the Brave to Rebuild project volunteers to get running in the Chernihiv region. The building suffered from a full-scale Russian invasion. 

The school is housed in the Mazanka Ukrainian traditional hut built in 1923 is the great thing about this particular school. Among other things, the volunteers rebuilt the walls using authentic technology: they kneaded sand and clay with straw with their feet in a specially prepared container. The resulting mass was beaten to create the right consistency. The local community was also involved in the work. 

The roof and windows were replaced, and a ramp was installed. And artists painted a mural with traditional Ukrainian ornaments on the school.

Prior accreditation is required.

• children
• reconstruction
• Chernihiv

Larysa Zahryva has devoted 25 years of her life to education. She worked as a teacher, and in 2022 she took up the position of the head of the Center for the Provision of Social Services in Chernihiv Oblast. When the full-scale war broke out, the village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske, where Larysa lived and worked, was under occupation. For 37 days, she kept going to work and taking care of the elderly people who remained in the village. Larysa hid documents from the Russians and was threatened with a gun five times. The occupiers came to her house in the middle of the night and interrogated Larysa’s husband.

After the liberation of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynskyi, thanks to the support of the United Nations Development Program, Larysa managed to set up the Third Age University. Today, there are already several fields of study in the curriculum: the Faculty of Healthy Lifestyles, the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Faculty of Decorative and Applied Arts.

• occupation
• women
• Chernihiv

On September 27, the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, with the support of the USAID Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities Activity (AGRO), will organize a press tour for journalists to the affected agricultural enterprises of Chernihiv oblast and a roundtable discussion with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Agricultural and Land Policy, local self-government agencies, representatives of partner countries, charities and affected farmers.

During the press tour, media representatives will visit three farms in Chernihiv region of various sizes and specialized in different areas, which got damaged as a result of hostilities and lost their production facilities as well as livestock.

After the press tour, Kyiv will host a roundtable discussion to consider priority needs and tools to support the recovery of the agricultural sector. The participants include:

Mykola Solskyi, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food

Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister – Agrarian Policy and Food Minister

Oleksandr Haydu, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy

Kseniya Sydorkina, Director for USAID AGRO Program

Andriy Dykun, Chair of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council

Also, the discussion will be joined by the affected agricultural producers from different regions of Ukraine and representatives of international donors.

Registration is required. A detailed event agenda will be provided after confirmation of media accreditation.

• casualties
• russian crimes
• Chernihiv

In Chernihiv region, an international construction camp for the reconstruction of housing destroyed as a result of russian aggression has started working. It was launched by the organization Repair Together, which is known for its community clean-up events. The project will last three months (until October 10 this year). During this time, there are plans to build at least 9 houses on the site of destroyed buildings.

Eoin, a professional construction worker from Ireland, is one of the many foreign volunteers who joined this camp. The man became the chief foreman, and he helps with reconstruction. There are also volunteers from France, Israel, Finland, Peru, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, Romania, Italy, U.S., Belarus, Poland and Austria.

For reference: Repair Together is an organization that involves volunteers in restoring destroyed villages. Volunteers have already rebuilt 7 completely destroyed houses, repaired another 20 and coordinated the repairs and restoration of 49 buildings.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Chernihiv

Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske village is located near Chernihiv. At the beginning of the full-scale war, it was under occupation for more than a month. In March 2022, two russian missiles hit the local lyceum: the first and second floors of the building and the sports ground were destroyed.

The computer science, chemistry, physics, biology and defense of Ukraine classrooms, as well as the archive were also destroyed. The gym was damaged too.

Currently, the charitable foundation “savED” is helping to restore the lyceum (this foundation restores access to education in communities affected by the war).

Also, as part of the efforts by UNITED24, global initiative to support Ukraine, a charity match was held in London, where Ukrainian football players Andriy Shevchenko and Oleksandr Zinchenko took to the field to raise funds to restore Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske Lyceum in Chernihiv region.

• children
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Chernihiv

From August 10 to 13, volunteers of the “Brave to Rebuild” project will go on their second trip to restore a school in Lykhachiv, Chernihiv region. The building was damaged in russia’s full-scale invasion. The peculiarity of the educational institution is that it is a mazanka hut from 1923. Volunteers have already rebuilt the walls using the authentic technique. In particular, sand, clay and straw were mixed in a specially prepared container by using their feet. The resulting mix was further processed to reach the right consistency.

The local community is also involved in these works. A carpenter with experience in building mazanka huts oversees the work and trains the volunteers. Among other things, the work ahead includes roof and windows replacement as well as wheelchair ramp installation. Later, invited artists will paint a mural with traditional Ukrainian ornaments on the walls of the school.

• volunteers
• Chernihiv

Kulykiv community, in Chernihiv oblast, suffered at the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion: 300 houses were damaged and more than 40 were destroyed as a result of shelling by the occupiers.

In order to help the residents with reconstruction, the community leadership has implemented dozens of grant projects and attracted foreigners since last year. Among other things, they were able to restore two damaged culture centers and an urgent care center. They also managed to involve volunteers from different parts of the world to put up 24 modular houses for people to live in temporarily. (For example, volunteers from Norway, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, etc. worked there.)

Journalists are welcome to talk with people who lost their homes and for whom modular houses were built.

• casualties
• reconstruction
• Chernihiv