Themes by tag: Kharkiv

Journalists are invited to join the Volunteer Day at the environmentally responsible hot meal preparation and distribution center Dobra Kuchniya in Kharkiv on June 2. Each participant can volunteer at the soup kitchen and prepare meals for 800 Saltivka industrial district residents. 

Accreditation lasts until May 30, inclusive. Journalists from Kyiv will be provided with a transfer to and from Kharkiv.

For reference: Saltivka is a Kharkiv residential area to suffer the most from Russian shelling. More than half of the buildings there were damaged.

• food
• volunteers
• Kharkiv

The village where farmer Hennadii lives was under shelling for six months. In order to detect explosive objects in the fields where he grew wheat, the man decided to purchase a drone with a thermal imager. (Debris of rockets or mines are displayed in a thermal imager differently than, for example, the ground or vegetation). With the permission of the military, the farmer inspects the land and takes pictures to show the EOD.

In addition, the farmer’s lavender field was damaged due to russia’s full-scale invasion. About a third of the plants died. Now he and his wife are trying to restore it. Previously, tourists visited the lavender field and held photo shoots there.

As reported, Oleksandr, another farmer from Kharkiv region, rebuilt an ordinary tractor to demine his fields.

Important notice: taking pictures of mined fields can be dangerous.

• russian crimes
• Kharkiv

FRIDA Ukraine, a mission of Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteers, continues to provide assistance to the civilian population affected by hostilities.

A total of 3 missions will take place on May 13-14. Two of them will take place in the de-occupied and front-line parts of Kharkiv and Kherson regions. A team of 20 doctors will provide quality medical care in regional communities for two days.

Also, another team of volunteer doctors will take outpatient appointments at the “Enjoying Life: Care” support center for displaced persons in Kyiv as part of the marathon organized jointly with “Enjoying Life” charitable foundation. It is the first time, FRIDA doctors will take appointments with temporarily displaced persons at such a scale.

Journalists are invited to accompany the team of medical volunteers during planned missions in Kharkiv or Kherson regions, or join the mission in Kyiv. There is also an opportunity to cover the activities of FRIDA Ukraine and conduct interviews with the team without traveling to hot spots.

Accreditation required.

• doctors
• volunteers
• Kharkiv
• Kherson
• Kyiv

Rehabilitation specialists of the Healthy Body project help Ukrainian defenders to recover (in particular, after injuries or carrying heavy ammunition for a long time). Mobile teams go to the military at frontline positions with the necessary equipment: mobile devices for shockwave therapy, ultrasound diagnostics, etc. Specialists can help several dozen defenders in one working day.

Currently, this project, as an experimental freelance physical rehabilitation group, is a part of “Kharkiv” Operational Group of troops. So far, this is the only organizational unit of its kind in the army.

• doctors
• military
• Kharkiv

The first animals have been returned to the Alpaca Valley of the Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv Oblast, the one affected during Russia’s full-scale invasion. (Earlier, the life-saving evacuation of animals was unfolded). Today, alpacas, horses, llamas, ponies, and goats live there.

The Alpaca Valley was cleared of mines in late April and is scheduled to open to the public on June 1.  

For reference: Before Russia’s all-out invasion, the Feldman Ecopark had about 5 thousand animals. During the full-scale war, the territory was under severe occupant attack. More than 300 animals died, some of them escaped. Groups of animals were taken out as a part of a coordinated rescue effort. The park’s infrastructure was significantly destroyed. 6 people who helped the animals were killed.

• animals
• Kharkiv

In the de-occupied village of Hrakove, Oleksandr, a farmer, kitted out his ordinary tractor to clear his fields of mines. The vehicle travels through the dangerous ground without a driver, as it operates by remote control.  Among other things, the sides of the tractor were reinforced with panels stripped from abandoned russian infantry fighting vehicles and wooden bars to protect it from shrapnel.

Important notice: photo and video recording can be dangerous. The tractor has already hit explosive devices twice.

For reference: Due to russia’s full-scale invasion, a third of Ukraine’s territory is heavily mine-contaminated. The explosive devices still remain in agricultural lands. Therefore, there are often reports of people being injured or killed while working in the fields.

• casualties
• occupation
• Kharkiv

75-year-old Japanese volunteer Fuminori Tsuchiko opened a coffee shop in Kharkiv (in a residential area that was badly affected by russia’s full-scale invasion). He provides hot lunches for people free of charge. He opened the cafe with the money from selling his apartment in Japan. Some sympathetic people also help him financially.

Previously, Fuminori spent 9 months in Kharkiv metro and provided assistance to local residents. And later, together with his assistants, he distributed products to those in need.

• volunteers
• Kharkiv

Kharkiv-based activist teachers of physical education from “JuniorS” NGO came together to give a good childhood for children even at the times of war. There is a ban on mass events in communal and state institutions, but they found a way around it. As the result of the joint efforts by “JuniorS” and a shopping mall, classes in various sports (pétanque, baseball, badminton, frisbee, interesting relay races) for the youngest are held in the parking lot of the shopping mall, i.e. in a shelter. 

• children
• Kharkiv

From an ordinary basement with raw walls to an exemplary shelter: a bomb shelter was recently set up in one of Kharkiv lyceums in accordance with all the rules and requirements. Among other things, this shelter now has ventilation, electricity and the Internet. In addition, the temperature in the room is now adjustable. There are beds, study desks, a separate cafeteria and a corner for relaxation. The shelter takes up over 500 square meters. Currently, students of the lyceum study online. During air raid alerts, school employees and refugees living in the premises, go down to the bomb shelter.

• children
• reconstruction
• Kharkiv

The goal of the volunteer project “Brave to Rebuild” is to help residents of the de-occupied territories of Ukraine to restore housing and social institutions damaged as a result of the russian federation’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Since the beginning of May 2022, over 2,000 volunteers from Ukraine, Europe, the U.S., Canada and Australia have been involved in the project. Among other things, volunteers helped to clear debris, repair roofs and windows in 228 detached houses and 153 apartments in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. 

Upcoming events:

February 21-22, 2023 (Kyiv) — setting up “Volunteer Indomitability” hub in the premises of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. This indomitability center will help volunteers and young activists, as well as provide electricity to enable work during power and communication outages. In fact, it will be a public co-working space, arranged by the activists themselves.

February 25-26 (Irpin, Bucha and surrounding villages). Clearing debris, small repairs in detached houses.

• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• Kharkiv
• Kherson
• Kyiv