Themes by tag: volunteers

Twenty-three years old Ryan used to work in the US Navy.  During the full-scale invasion, he decided to come to Ukraine and help people. He joined the Building Ukraine Together volunteers, the Odesa department in particular, where volunteers built the first Military Leadership Center in Ukraine. The man poured concrete and prepared the walls for painting. And now, as part of the Building Ukraine Together camp, he is assisting to equip the space of the Ridne Misto  (‘Hometown’) youth center in the city hall in the Ternopil region. The man says he is impressed by the strength and unity of Ukrainians.

For reference:  Building Ukraine Together is a non-governmental organization that creates opportunities for young people to change the country through volunteering.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Ternopil

Volodymyr became interested in pottery in his youth: he tried different techniques and learned from many masters. He had to quit doing it when Russia first attacked Ukraine in the east. Volodymyr mobilized in 2015, took up an anti-tank guided missile, and became an enemy of Russian tanks. After demobilization, he got back to his hobby of pottery. After February 24, 2022, Volodymyr began volunteering and helping Ukrainian defenders. In particular, he visited one of the capital’s hospitals to support the military and hold a pottery workshop for them. Today, the veteran and his wife conduct art therapy for the military in their workshop. They have enlisted the support of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund to scale up into a Pottery Art Center and create an art residence. They plan to take in more military personnel who need therapy.

• culture
• military
• psychological support
• volunteers

Before the start of the full-scale invasion, the company of Kharkiv-based Ihor Yefimenko was doing car repairs. After February 24, 2022, his team reformatted and began manufacturing level 5 body armor for the military. When a relative of Ihor Yefimenko lost his toes due to a mine explosion, the entrepreneur realized that his team should also develop protection for sappers and EOD experts. They took the Canadian model as a basis, adapted it to the needs of the Ukrainian military and rescuers, and began production. The weight of each boot is 4 kilograms, and the team uses 3D printers to manufacture the parts. Ihor Yefimenko explains that boots are not a magic cure, they will not be able to completely prevent injury, but they still allow those who use them to avoid traumatic amputation.

• military
• volunteers
• Kharkiv

Vitalii Hrytsayi is 48 years old and has been repairing cars in Zaporizha for 28 years. The man is a veteran who fought in 2014 in Mariinka, Donetsk Oblast. Later he was demobilized and returned to car repair. Vitalii says he has always dreamed of building a car with his own hands, but he never thought he would have to make one for the war. It took the mechanic 6 years to build his first all-terrain buggy entirely on his own in his spare time. When the full-scale invasion outbreak, he had to speed up because his military friends asked him to build them a war buggy. Now Vitalii is building his third all-terrain vehicle. Each vehicle is different from the others because Vitalii modifies the design to fit a specific task for the soldiers: reconnaissance, assault, or evacuation. Vitaliy cannot draw, so he keeps all the necessary diagrams and calculations in his head.

The mechanic says that Ukrainian defenders need such buggies because they are difficult for the enemy to detect. And they go where a jeep or off-road vehicle cannot.

• volunteers
• Zaporizhzhia

The Military Sewing Company is a voluntary association of people who volunteer to sew adaptive clothing for wounded soldiers: pants, shorts, underpants, T-shirts, etc. The adaptive clothing with Velcro, ties, or buttons is designed so injured defenders can put it on comfortably and painlessly. 

The Military Sewing Company has already produced over 30,000 pieces of such clothing. They are sent to more than 50 medical institutions across Ukraine, as well as to soldiers in need of such garments.

The Military Sewing Company was founded in Dnipro. People who have joined the initiative and sew clothes (in workshops, sewing shops, or home-based ones) are located in Kyiv, Dnipro, Rivne, Poltava, Zhytomyr, and Lviv. Some seamstresses are actively involved in sewing while residing in Norway, Germany, and Canada.

• casualties
• military
• volunteers
• Dnipro
• Kyiv
• Lviv
• Poltava
• Zhytomyr
• Rivne

The All-Ukrainian Center for the Adoption of Homeless Animals “Patron Pets Center” launched a new project entitled “Walk with me.” Its purpose is to socialize four-legged friends. Those who are willing to take part in the project can walk animals in the center of the capital every day from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, and from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

“Patron Pets Center” cooperates with volunteers who evacuate animals from regions suffering from russia’s full-scale invasion. So, for example, the Center recently sheltered more than a hundred pets from Kherson region. Volunteers also bring animals from Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.

In Kyiv, “Patron Pets Center” provides shelter to animals, rehabilitates them and helps to find owners.

• animals
• volunteers
• Kyiv

All her life, Viktoriia had been afraid of needles and she would even lose consciousness when her blood was being taken for a test. Despite this, on February 23, 2022, the woman donated blood for the military for the first time: she wanted to help the Ukrainian army in the east. Already after February 24, donation became a usual task for Viktoriia. The woman donates blood as often as doctors allow.

Viktoriia also began actively blogging about blood donation. She debunks myths and gives advice to those just starting out on this path. In particular, she talks about her experience, shares the best places to donate blood and describes the entire procedure in detail. Viktoriia says that she managed to persuade a considerable number of people to donate blood.

• volunteers
• women

Women from the IT industry, who have been actively helping Ukrainian defenders since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, make infantry shovels for the military. They realized that, although such shovels are needed by the majority of Ukrainian soldiers, it is extremely difficult to find an inexpensive shovel of good quality. Therefore, the girls united in a volunteer initiative called “Teeth Shovel.” They managed to establish the production of high-quality shovels, costing UAH 150 per piece. “Teeth shovel” has already handed over 18,000 shovels to Ukrainian fighters. Currently, the goal of the “toothy” girls is to provide 30,000 soldiers with infantry shovels.

• military
• volunteers
• women

Joe is 61 years old. Twenty years ago, he served at New York City Police Department and later trained police paramedics. But Joe has been in Ukraine for almost a year now: he joined the Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteer mission FRIDA.  As a paramedic (sometimes as an ECG technician), he travels with specialists to the de-occupied and frontline regions to help people. For example, the man had to help patients in bomb shelters. And also in settlements where no doctors were left due to the full-scale invasion of Russia.

For reference: FRIDA Ukraine, the Ukrainian-Israeli medical volunteer charitable mission, has been helping civilians since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In particular, they counsel people, operate, evacuate and distribute medicines. Volunteer doctors (of various medical specialties) travel to the regions (for example, Kharkiv, Kherson, or Donetsk) to help local residents with health issues. 

• casualties
• doctors
• volunteers

Vinnytsia based volunteer Maksym Huzii received a trophy from the Ukrainian defenders from the Avdiivka axis – a used tube from the Javelin anti-tank system. Then Maksym got the idea to make something out of these weapons that could once again be useful for the Ukrainian army. Together with Vinnytsia engineers, Maksym created powerful audio systems based on the tubes. One speaker weighs 47 kilograms and produces a powerful sound. The volunteer plans to auction and raffle off these speakers among foreign donors in order to receive funding to buy ambulances, which are needed at the frontline. The first speaker has already been purchased by a Ukrainian IT worker who lives in the U.S. He bought it for UAH 500,000. 

• culture
• military
• volunteers
• Vinnytsia