We can spend a long time pondering the subject of Donbas residents and theobligations they have in doing penance. It is convenient if you’re dealing with dry facts, a decrease in the population density on the territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government helps the already convulsing social aid services there.
What about the fate of the residents of towns and villages in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) zone? They are faced with the scarcity of food, the lack of social payments and constant fear. For various reasons not everyone is ready to leave their home. Donbas SOS is offering a helping hand to the people who have remained in the ATO zone. The main form of communication between us is a humanitarian dialogue.
One and a half months ago our team sent our first package to Donbas. We thank the volunteers for every package of food, warm clothes, and children’s toys which reached its addressee. Twice a week humanitarian aid is being sent to refugee aid centers in the liberated towns where there is a dire shortage of food, as well as towns beyond the perimeter, such as Yenakievo, Gorlivka, Makiivka, and Torez.
In order to collect a food package, our volunteer Vika “goes caroling” in a Fora store (supermarket chain). After a few hours, the contents of several baskets with humanitarian aid from kind-hearted Kyiv residents go to the warehouse. For the last 6 weeks we have also been aided by Volunteers’ Hundred who gave us ten sacks of onions, potatoes, carrots and a barrel of sauerkraut. Right now we are expecting some heavy cargo with food from farmers in the Kyiv region.
Our dear colleagues from 9/11 Frolivska Street help us with warm clothes for both adults and children. We also received a significant amount of things for children from the “Diya v Ukraini” (Action in Ukraine) organization, children’s eco center and through the efforts of concerned citizens. The “Ranok”(Morning) publishing and book store is sending 300 children’s small encyclopedias to eastern Ukraine. The “Elios-Mylist’” (Elios-Mercy) project and their auto-train of Peace and Unity was of great help, and we sent with them many useful things for Donbas.
We are also helping the smallest of children – the supply of diapers, baby formula, and warm things for newborn babies has increased in Mezhygirya. As a result of such a show of kindness, we managed to believe in miracles because the most responsive of people seem to always be with us. They bring us things collected by the proactive Kyiv residents in Bortnychi and Sviatoshyno. We receive packages from Odessa and from Uman. Coordinator Oksana has received great help from Borshchagivskiy chemical-pharmaceutical plant in filling requests for medicines, as well as restockingof our medical basket from our favorite volunteers.
Our warehouse, kindly provided for us by the “Elios-Mylist’” (Elios-Mercy) charity, has become,under the eparchial protectorate, a real residence of good deeds. The volunteers work hard, pack food and clothes and put together humanitarian packages. SvitlaShats, ZheniaShyshatsky, Vika, Mykola, Irisha, our dear coordinators Oksana and Irina, thank you all for your dedication to this great cause! We thank our ever-present volunteers for helping with transportation – Andriy, Gennadiy, Tamara, Ivan, as well as Natalia, Zoriana, Maksym and Oleksandr.
Without “Nova Poshta” and coordinator Illia, it is unlikely that our cargo would have reached their destinations so fast and so easy. Our “carolers” and boxes for donations can be found in the wonderful Fora stores!
We owe our success to you! Special thanks to our guardian angels who manage to get our packages over to the towns “on the other side”. To all masters, magicians and wizards of good deeds, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
If you would like to join our initiative, become a volunteer or offer direct support, please call our hotline at 0 800 30 911 0.
Strong together!