Intro

The war in Ukraine is still ongoing. I won't be saying much about it. If you are on this page you probably know what is going on.

With the Ukrainian army fighting for freedom on the battlefield, many civilians and those abroad are looking for every possible way they can help and often find themselves doing things they never did before. This turned out to be the reality of my friend Konstantin Voitsekhovskyi and his team of volunteers.

How am I related to the volunteers?

The team is ran and operated by my childhood and college friend Konstantin Voitsekhovskyi. A certified volunteer now, he is an IT guy in day-to-day life.  Konstantin works as a "Scrum Master and Delivery Manager" in a Kharkiv-based IT company. Unfortunately, saying "Kharkiv-based" is no longer correct, since the city is suffering from everyday bombardments and many businesses now had to move employees to a fully online mode.

I know Konstantin since my early childhood, as both of us were born in the same Ukrainian city. The city that now many Americans have heard of after the shopping mall "Amstor" was bombed and destroyed there on June 27th. It's Kremenchuk.  As kids we used to go to the same daycare or kindergarten, as we call it in Ukraine. We attended different public schools but "connected" again in Kharkiv, where we were dorm roommates during our six-year study at one of the local universities. Good times! By the way, our dorm is still standing and we hope it will stay untouched till the end of this war.

Konstantin and I have many memories (and more) to share and it's needless to say he has my full trust as someone who will be re-distributing funds and making decisions on who in Ukraine to help to.

Who Konstantin's team is helping to?

To make a long story short:

The short answer would be "everyone in need". Many people the team is helping to have lost their homes and are now trying to start a new life in a new place. In other words, refugees. The majority of funds will be used to help them get all the necessary essentials they have been deprived of: food, personal hygiene products, childcare products like diapers, strollers, formula; tools for home repair and many more. The team mostly works in Kremenchuk and Kharkiv regions. Aside from their own efforts there are few volunteering centers the team is in touch with. People from the army may also reach out from time to time asking for help. Such requests are addresses, too, whenever it is possible.

A long story:

In order to get a better picture of what Konstantin's team is doing and what stands behind their work, it would be helpful to dive into how it all began. 

As the war started many people had to flee Kharkiv as well as many other cities all over the country. Konstantin was one of them as his apartment complex was not in a safe location and got eventually hit several times. He and his wife Eugenia (who's also playing an important role in the team) left Kharkiv for our hometown - Kremenchuk, which looked like a relatively safe place at that time. That's when he started to think of the ways he could help his country and he was not alone there. Konstantin's neighbor, Nikolai, who used to be a construction manager in Kharkiv, told him about a place that needed help. The town of Krasnokutsk, 55 mi (90 km) away from Kharkiv, had thousands of civilians seeking safety and coming to the town. The town's population has nearly doubled because of all the refugees who have arrived there. People looking for a shelter sometimes had to stay in abandoned houses and were trying to fix them to make suitable for living. Nikolay was already helping them in every possible way.

That's when Konstantin, Nikolay and Eugenia joined their efforts and started to work as volunteers. They started by purchasing and delivering a variety of the most essential products to the people in Krasnokutsk. The products varied from food and kitchen utensils, personal hygiene items and clothing to electric tools and hardware for home repairs. There was shortage of everything since the city's infrastructure was not prepared for such a massive increase in population, while the refugees coming to the city could barely bring anything with them, thus, were in need of the very basic products. 

Later on they met a small business owner operating in Kremenchuk and willing to help, too. She had a small unoccupied office space and suggested that the team use it as a storage. She also had a van she let the team borrow and a driver ready to help as well. Now that they had a more spacious car, they could deliver more products to both Krasnokutsk and Kharkiv. Additionally, a lot of work has been done in Kremenchuk itself, since many refugees chose to move and settle there.

The word of mouth spread and the geography of the team's volunteering efforts started to widen. More people who knew Konstantin or someone from his team started to reach out either to ask for help or offer it. There were volunteers and volunteering organizations, local officials and even a few military men. That's also when the team acquired a couple of new members - Yulia, who's been volunteering for a few years already, and Dmitry, Konstantin's schoolmate. With both the team and the volunteering network growing, they could now work more efficiently: they had better communication, more points of contact and opportunities to exchange not only the information on where their help is needed the most, but also the products themselves. For example, at some point, the team learned volunteers in Kharkiv no longer needed diapers (because many families with small kids left the city), while Kremenchuk needed them very much.

Today the humanitarian aid coming from Konstantin's team is not limited to the cities mentioned above (Kharkiv, Kremenchuk, Krasnokutsk). They also help people in various communities, villages and other smaller settlements where they know people need it. Often, sending goods is done via mail since it can be a cheaper way of delivering products (considering fuel shortages).

Whenever possible, the team is helping the Ukrainian army by providing them with non-lethal equipment (e.g. radio walkie-talkies, night vision devices, batteries, rangefinders, clothing and shoes, medical equipment etc.). Overall, the team's civilian/military help ratio would be 85%/15%.

The team

• Konstantin - certified volunteer, does deliveries, logistics, gets the team work going
• Eugenia - certified volunteer and Konstantin's wife, helps by finding goods and better deals, connects with other volunteers and establishes points of contact, does a lot of online and offline work
• Nikolay - Konstantin's neighbor, volunteer and main point of contact in Krasnokutsk
• Yulia - Konstantin's schoolmate's wife, has several years of volunteering experience, a mother, helps with getting childcare products, clothing and goods, does a lot of online and offline work
• Dmitry - Konstantin's schoolmate who is always there to help. He was the one to find the team's office/storage space, helping with bulk purchases
• Oleg - local lawyer and consultant for the team
• And many other supporters 

How will your donations be used?

This campaign is planned to be a continuous effort to help Konstantin's team function. We didn't choose to raise funds for getting specific items because this is not how the team started and currently operates. They help ordinary people get ordinary things and in a chaos of war it is hardly possible to forecast what one might need the next day. On a regular basis, we will provide detailed updates on where your donations are going.

Fundraising story

The team originally started to raise funds by spreading information about their efforts among co-workers and friends. Almost all the money has been collected by Ukrainians for Ukrainians, but as the war is getting protracted and people's resources are running short, the fundraising is becoming harder.

Here in the US I sometimes got questions from people on how they can help but I didn't have a good answer. Now I'm taking an attempt at creating this campaign which I hope will be a sensible help for the volunteers and at the same time will provide you, the helper, with visibility into how exactly the funds are spent. 

Final word

I'm trying to be as open about this campaign as possible. The truth is, not every volunteer in Ukraine has a friend in the US who can help them with fundraising. I'm happy to be there and this is the least I can do. Together we can make a big difference to the people Konstantin's team is helping to.

You are welcome to contact both of us with any questions or suggestions you might have (yes, Konstantin, too, his English is great). Just use "Contact campaign" button at the top of the page.