Today we handed over 320 humanitarian aid packages right in the centre of Irpin, in the small square in front of the House of Culture, which is also half in ruins. Our colleagues from ADRA Ukraine they are working with the city council, which has prepared a list of people - mostly seniors and people with special needs - who have had their homes damaged or completely destroyed and have been left in need of help.

 

Immediately after our arrival, a lot of people gathered around the Help Team Bus. The queue was getting longer and longer and our colleagues had to explain with infinite patience who the help was for and that our options were limited. Too bad we didn't have at least two parcel trucks available...

 

For many seniors, our 14 kg boxes were too heavy, so we helped them load them onto wheelchairs, bicycles, or into bags. On this occasion, we got to talk to many of them.

 

An elderly gentleman, who might have been in his seventies, explained to me: „My wife was Russian, we lived here together for years. She was terribly horrified by what had happened and could not understand how „our people“ could kill „our people“ like that... after all, we are brothers! She died here in the streets of the city...“

 

Another gentleman thanked the Slovaks very much: „When the war broke out, we fled to Slovakia to save our lives. We lived in Levice for a few months with our grandchildren. Everyone was extremely kind to us. Now we are back, trying to repair our house and surviving as best we can... Thank you Slovaks!“

 

Many people live in broken houses and burnt-out apartment blocks. The winter is not so harsh at the moment, but the next few weeks will be even harder. People are helping each other as best they can and have learned to survive somehow, because as they say - „life may never go back to normal, but we have to learn to survive at least from one day to the next...“

 

Our small ADRA team is fine, we are all relatively healthy, although our journey through Ukraine is physically and mentally taxing... Tomorrow we travel even further east.“

 

We will inform you soon about the further course of our journey in Ukraine.

 

Read more about our assistance to Ukraine here.

 

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The project „Strengthening Access to Basic Food and Sanitation for the Most Vulnerable Population in Ukraine,“ 8/2022 - 4/2023, is funded by the Official Development Assistance of the Slovak Republic - SlovakAid.

 

The project to help people affected by the war in Ukraine is funded by Japan Platform and ADRA Japan.