Themes by tag: volunteers

On October 8 Kyiv will hold a memorial evening for Canadian volunteer Anthony ‘Tonko’ Ihnat and Spanish volunteer and director of Road2Relief Emma Igual, who were killed in Donetsk Oblast. In September, along with other foreign volunteers, assisted by civilians they were traveling from Chasiv Yar to Ivanivske village. The car was hit by a Russian shell.

The memorial evening is held by Brave to Rebuild project volunteers together with the Road2Relief team.

For reference: Canadian Anthony sold his truck in 2022 and came to Ukraine to help people. He worked at clean-ups, carried bags for people at the Polish border, delivered humanitarian aid, evacuated people, and repaired schools.

• dead
• volunteers
• Kyiv

The “Animal Rescue Kharkiv” NGO opened a contact rehabilitation center for cats “Little Prince.” Animals rescued from the war zone are rehabilitated there. In particular, the center has a contact room made to resemble a home as much as possible, where you can play with cats. According to the founders, it is a kind of rehabilitation and relaxation, both for the pets and for the people.

The room receives visitors 4 times a week. Everyone is welcome. Most of all, military personnel (who also participated in cat rescue) and children are invited there.

For reference: the “Animal Rescue Kharkiv” NGO team has been rescuing animals in the city and the region for more than 8 years. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they have also been evacuating animals from the war zone and de-occupied settlements (Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions). Volunteers, in particular, provide emergency medical assistance to animals, give them temporary shelter and find old or new owners for the pets.

• animals
• casualties
• children
• military
• volunteers
• Kharkiv

Mariia Yudina is an artist and designer. The girl comes from Berdiansk city, Zaporizhia region (currently under Russian control). 

Mariia faced the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Kyiv, where she came to bring an art project to life. Later, volunteers approached the artist with an offer to paint the remains of wrecked and damaged weapons. Since then, a one-off project developed into a regular basis art object-making. Mariia donates the painted shell casings, tubes, flasks, and remnants of rockets to charity auctions and fundraisers.

The artist mostly paints flowers on used weapons. Her slogan is: “They launch missiles, and I draw flowers on it.” Now the artist is also working on painting tubes with views of different cities: Zaporizhia, and Melitopol. Maria has also depicted landscapes of her native Berdiansk. She also plans to portray the Crimea landscape. 

• culture
• volunteers
• women
• Kyiv

Olena Chekryzhova is an experienced English teacher who lived in Donetsk Oblast until 2014. There, Olena managed to create one of the first online platforms for learning a foreign language. However after Russia attacked Eastern Ukraine, she left her hometown and kept on doing her business in Kyiv. In 2022, when the full-scale hostile invasion began, Olena got started with volunteering and later taught soldiers English at a military base to make it easier for them to work with the weapons that our partners were sending to Ukraine. Eventually, she created her project to teach English to the Armed Forces.

For information: Olena is in Kyiv, ready to talk to journalists, both online and offline.

• military
• volunteers
• women
• Kyiv

Serhiy Bas is the founder of Zubayster Mobile Dentistry. He came up with the idea to visit soldiers and treat their teeth right at the front in the summer of 2022. The volunteer dentist says that dental problems on the front line often get worse and can sometimes even threaten the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

Thanks to his investments and donations from all those concerned, Serhiy managed to raise more than $15,000 and create a mobile dental office to travel to the front line. For almost a year of the Zubayster project’s work, volunteers have provided the necessary dental care to more than 1,500 soldiers and civilians living in the frontline area. In a day, doctors have 25 to 30 soldier’s appointments in one mobile office. Since August this year, the volunteers opened a second office.

For reference: Volunteer dentists are ready to take those accredited by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine journalists to the point of deployment, provided they. In addition, the mobile office opened to the public in Odesa.

• doctors
• military
• volunteers
• Odesa

The “On3wheels” project was founded by two friends in 2016. Sava and Oleksandr set out to organize accessible hikes in the mountains for people with disabilities. For this purpose, they purchased a special cart and recruited a large team of volunteers, ready to help people get to the peaks of the Ukrainian Carpathians. As the full-scale invasion began, the team contemplated a new format, mainly organizing hikes for soldiers, who lost their limbs due to war injuries. This year, they have already managed to hold one such hike for ten soldiers. Now the volunteers are preparing for the next hike with the military.

• military
• volunteers

David is a U.S. citizen, who runs a consulting company (working with NGOs and charities on their financial health and sustainability). The man visited Ukraine for the first time in 2012 (Kyiv, Kharkiv and Donetsk) and says that he fell in love with it. When russia’s full-scale invasion began last year, he went to Warsaw with International Medical Relief to help Ukrainians. He came to Ukraine in June 2023. Here he joined the volunteer project “Brave to Rebuild.”

The man has already joined the efforts to rebuild houses and repair schools. He even went to Kherson to help repair buildings that were damaged by floods and shelling.

David is currently in Kherson. And starting from next week, he will be ready to talk with the media in the capital. 

• reconstruction
• volunteers

The Rehabilitation by Tourism project for rotating military enlisted personnel or those undergoing rehabilitation is now unfolding in the Lviv region. On September 23-24, the participants will spend two days traveling around the Lviv region. A river catamaran trip will be available. Considering the state of health, the military is welcome to take part in kayaking and rock climbing workshops. A guided tour and a caving trip to be also organized for the project participants. All activities are free of charge for the defenders. About 30 participants have already signed up. The “Rehabilitation by Tourism” project is being implemented by the Manivtsi Tourist Club together with the Youth and Sports Department of the Lviv Oblast Military Administration.

• casualties
• military
• volunteers
• Lviv

Aelita Basanets is a mother and wife of an Armed Forces serviceman. When the full-scale invasion began, she went to Poland with her son. She returned eight months later wanting to be as close as possible to her beloved and the military’s families. Aelita saw women losing their husbands in the war withdrawing into themselves and becoming reserved, distancing people. She decided to support them and founded the Children of Angels charity in Kremenchuk, which provides free care for military children and their wives. The foundation’s volunteers are tutors who prepare children for higher education institution admission. The volunteering services also include eyebrow artists, dentists, and makeup artists who work with the wives of fallen soldiers.

• children
• volunteers
• women

Since the summer of 2022, the volunteer project “Marriage for a Hero” has been helping to organize “turnkey” weddings for military personnel. A team of beauty and event industry professionals provide their services for free. Organization and coordination of the wedding, make-up and hairstyle for the bride, wedding invitations, cake, cameramen and photographers’ services, decorations – this is far from a complete list of what they help with free of charge within the framework of the charity initiative.

The volunteer project “Marriage for a Hero” was founded by Svitlana Olifer from Cherkasy, who has been working in the wedding industry for seven years. Currently, the project has already been scaled up throughout Ukraine. The project has helped with a total of more than 20 weddings.

Important notice: In the near future, volunteers of the initiative will help a Kharkiv couple in love to organize a wedding celebration. By prior agreement, the mass media can attend the marriage registration ceremony.

• military
• volunteers