Themes by tag: volunteers

42-year-old Lars has come from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to help Ukrainians for the third time. For example, a year ago he volunteered in Bakhmut. Now he will spend the next two months in the Donetsk region. In particular, he and the Unbreakable volunteer team are currently drilling a water well near the front line for local residents. 

Journalists can find out more about where the Dutchman is working now and talk to him online and offline.

For reference: The Unbreakable (Nezlamni) volunteer team has set up seven front-line invincibility points. There, people can see the power on for the first time in many months, eat hot food, receive humanitarian and medical aid, do laundry, and take a shower. In addition, volunteers have opened two public laundry rooms in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian defenders can bring their clothes there, which will be washed, dried, and even repaired for free. The team plans to open such centers along the entire front-line zone.

• volunteers

Olena Vovk started volunteering for the military back in 2014, when russia first attacked Ukraine in the East. The woman participated in many projects aimed at the rehabilitation of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And in 2023, she independently took up the efforts to help the veterans to return to civilian life. Olena is a tattoo artist by profession, so she started teaching soldiers her craft. This idea came to Olena from one of her military clients who wanted to master a new profession.

Together with “Kharkiv with you” Charity Foundation and “RAZOM FOR UKRAINE” Charity Foundation, the woman started a tattoo training course for servicemen and veterans in Kharkiv. Charity foundations helped with funding, purchased equipment and consumables for training, as well as tattoo machines for the military.

Olena plans to expand the course next year and conduct training in different cities of Ukraine. In particular, she will train military personnel with leg amputations. There are also plans to help former fighters get employed in tattoo parlors.

• military
• volunteers

Red Brunch Donor Day is organized by Yanina Sokolova’s Fund. The Fund’s team encourages Lviv residents and guests of the city to make a conscious decision to donate blood, in particular, during the full-scale war. After all, donating blood is one of the opportunities to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders.

For reference: Since 2019, Yanina Sokolova’s Fund has been changing people’s stereotypes about blood donation by holding Red Brunch events. Since the initiative started, 1,743 people have donated blood, which made it possible to save 5,229 lives.

• volunteers
• Lviv

Kharkiv is the first city where Dobrobat opened a construction trade school for volunteers. Such training is absolutely necessary, because people from various professions, often those very distant from construction trade, come to the volunteer building division.

The first 10 students have already begun studying in school with professional builders acting as instructors. The training will last 3 weeks. The courses are focused on 9 specialties: window and door installation, drywallers, masons, facade workers, roofers, tilers, etc.

Mine safety will also be taught at “Dobrobat” construction trade school, because volunteers also have to work in de-occupied territories, so such knowledge can save their lives.

Dobrobat plans to create similar schools in six more cities: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhia.

For reference: “Dobrobat” is a volunteer building division that helps to urgently rebuild housing and social infrastructure facilities in the de-occupied territories.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Kharkiv

Chujo Hideto is a 42-year-old businessman from Japan. He came to Ukraine in the spring of 2022 and has been volunteering ever since. In particular, in Dnipro, Chudjo contributed financially to the creation of a shelter for forcibly displaced persons. The Japanese man lives in this facility, and helps adults and children staying there.

The volunteer also took part in rescue operations in Kherson region after the occupiers blew up the Kakhovka HPP dam. And recently he bought power generators, power banks and boats for the local rescuers.

Chujo is the founder of the “Smile” charitable foundation, which supports children traumatized by the war. Wearing a Pikachu outfit, the Japanese man gives positive emotions to children and brings them gifts.

Journalists have the opportunity to talk to the volunteer (online or in person). Chujo Hideto does not speak English, he communicates with the help of translation software.

• casualties
• children
• volunteers
• Dnipro

Olha Pometun, a resident of Kamianka, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, is 37 years old. She was born with brittle bone disease. This is a congenital disease, when the bones are very fragile and break easily. In addition, in childhood, the woman suffered an injury that stopped her growth. Despite all the difficulties, Olha did not lose her passion for living. She took driving courses, bought a car and converted it to her own needs. In addition, she learned to swim and even wrote a motivational book.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Olha took up volunteering. In her native Kamianka, the woman founded the United by Good Charitable Foundation. Currently, Olha’s team consists of seven people, all of whom are IDPs. They help the military, as well as civilians who need support. Since it was founded, the team has managed to help more than 10,000 Ukrainian families.

• volunteers
• women
• Dnipro

Journalists are welcome to visit shelters for the unhoused elderly people (including those with disabilities) in Prybirsk and Hornostaipil in Kyiv Oblast together with the Yulyni Babusi (Yulia’s Grandmothers) charity foundation. To get seniors into the New Year’s Eve spirit, they will be given gifts: candy, cookies, tea, coffee, warm socks, blankets, knitting and embroidery kits. They will also receive greeting cards and letters written by caring Ukrainians.

Anyone willing could join the charity event and make a gift pack for the elderly in the shelters run by the foundation.

For reference: Yulia Karpova, a morning show radio host, founded the Yulyni Babusi charity foundation, which benefits senior citizens. The foundation’s slogan is: “There are no cooler grandchildren for older people than you and me.” Currently, they run 7 shelters in the Kyiv region (including in settlements affected by the occupation), Zhytomyr, and Dnipro regions. In total, the benefactors have more than five hundred children in need of care.

• volunteers
• Kyiv

Serhii Sidorov was 22 years old when he got into a terrible car wreck. Due to injuries, the man was paralyzed, and he also lost his sight: he could only tell the difference between night and day. Professional massage helped Serhii to recover: the man began to move again and learn to walk again. Later, he himself became interested in massage, which brought him back to life. Serhii graduated and started helping patients in the capital 8 years ago.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Serhii looked for an opportunity to help the military, because due to the injury he had suffered, he could not join the army himself. The man posted on social media calling on the military to contact him for free massage and rehabilitation. Since then, Serhii has helped more than 30 defenders.

• casualties
• military
• volunteers

Mykhailo Puryshev is an entrepreneur from Mariupol. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Mykhailo brought humanitarian aid to besieged Mariupol and evacuated Mariupol residents from the russian-blocked city. After the de-occupation of Kharkiv region, Mykhailo was one of the first volunteers to bring humanitarian aid to Izyum, Kupyansk, and Kivsharivka.

After months of providing aid in hot spots, Mykhailo and his team decided that the support should be comprehensive: people living under constant shelling, in dark basements, without communication, without healthcare and shops, without electricity and water, need a place where they can get everything they need. Therefore, Invincibility Centers were set up in seven settlements near the front line. The first three centers were built in Bakhmut until the city was razed to the ground and occupied by the russians. Then such centers were built in Orikhiv, Huliaipole, Kherson, Avdiivka and Vuhledar. In the Invincibility Centers, people can use electricity for the first time in many months, eat hot food, receive humanitarian and medical aid, wash clothes and take a shower. In addition, they can watch Ukrainian television, instead of listening to russian radio in the basements. And thanks to Starlink, they have an Internet connection to call their relatives. In some places, a team of volunteers even drilled wells, so that local residents could have access to water.

In addition, the volunteers noticed that the defenders coming from advanced frontline positions have nowhere to wash their dirty clothes and repair them for free. Hence, the idea of setting up laundry facilities for the military emerged. The first such facility has already started working in Kostyantynivka, the second one opened in Kurakhove in Donetsk region. Ukrainian defenders can bring clothes to the center, and they will be washed, dried and even repaired free of charge.

The team plans to equip such laundry centers along the entire front line. So that defenders don’t have to look for a place to wash clothes and can rest while the volunteers do it.

Mykhailo recently experienced a second heart attack and artery stenting, but despite this he returned to volunteering.

Journalists are welcome to communicate with Mykhailo and his Unbroken team both offline and online, as well as cover the work of volunteers.

• casualties
• reconstruction
• volunteers

Volunteers of “Brave to Rebuild” project created a wall calendar for the year 2024 with the participation of men who actively volunteered in community work in Kyiv region. (In particular, they cleared the rubble, laid communication lines, repaired houses damaged as a result of russia’s full-scale invasion). The calendar will also include photos of foreign volunteers.

According to the organizers’ design, this calendar is a reminder that it is still important to work hard to volunteer and help each other in 2024.

Pre-orders for “Brave Calendar” are already open (at the cost of a donation of UAH 300). Proceeds will go towards the purchase of tools and materials that volunteers will use for community work in 2024.

Journalists can talk to people involved in making the calendar and to volunteers who took part in the photo shoot. Currently, the calendar is in the production stage.

• volunteers
• Kyiv