GEM Volunteers Deliver Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine’s Hottest Spots

Director of Operations Global Empowerment Mission Ukraine, Andrii Negrych, told «СВОЇ.CITY» publication about the war in Ukraine, humanitarian aid, and the  horrors that Ukrainians in the east are experiencing.

 

We were able to relocate about 38,000 people to over 42 countries around the world.

«Our foundation has been present at the border since the beginning of the full-scale war. It was on the 25th, and we met the first Ukrainian refugees in Poland at the Medyka crosspoint. We had tent there, where we met Ukrainians and helped them get to their intended destination. This is what it actually looked like: a woman with a child approached us at the border, saying that her relatives was in Portugal and she needed to get there. Then we either bought them plane tickets or booked bus and sent them to their intended destination. In this way, we were able to relocate about 38,000 people to over 42 countries around the world,» Andriy said about the first days of the war.

Later, GEM representatives opened a warehouse in Lviv, and later fully relocated to Kiev, where they are now fully operational.

«At the moment, our main activity is providing humanitarian assistance to peaceful residents of Ukraine. Currently, we have about 170 partners in the form of various organizations, foundations, and military administrations that we regularly help. Usually, this includes food, water, medicine, clothing, and other essentials,» says the head of the Kiev office.

In addition to partnering with other organizations, volunteers from the Ukrainian branch of Global Empowerment Mission also travel by they own to cities in the east and distribute humanitarian aid to people.

 

 

«We call them family kits. We give these packages to civilians we meet during our visits. Across the front line each month, we distribute 120,000 of these kits. They mainly contain food and water, but there are also hygiene items, some clothing, socks, gloves, scarves, blankets. It's like a survival kit for those who need it.»

Recently, the Family Kits program has been fully funded by The Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

The delivery of humanitarian aid and its distribution to civilians is done by the volunteers of the Global Empowerment Mission Ukraine. Team has repeatedly been to Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar, and other cities on the front line. People's needs in the east are almost the same everywhere, so volunteers try to collect the most useful boxes possible.

 

«It's hard to identify one specific product that is most needed by people there. But if we're talking about a normal life for people, then it's primarily food and water, next is hygiene, and then medicine. After that come some comfortable things like generators, heaters, and fuel. We bring people mattresses, fold-out beds, and blankets. We recently delivered tens of thousands of blankets to the east because people need to survive somehow in dark, cold basements. We bring flashlights, batteries for them, and power banks. In just the past period, we distributed around 30,000 power banks. We brought clothing such as winter jackets, hats, and gloves. Protein bars. We distributed about 4.5 million of them. Sleeping bags, chemical hand warmers, and insoles - everything that can be useful in the combat zone,» says Andriy Negrych.

In addition, the Ukrainian office of GEM is also trying to support those who risk their lives every day to save people who want to evacuate from the combat zone.

«We actively cooperate with organizations that evacuate people from the combat zone. When they go to the east, we give them our family kits to distribute to the people. This year, we managed to create such a large volunteer «organism» when everyone is engaged in their own business and specialization: someone unloads humanitarian aid, someone collects family kits into boxes, our partners and we personally distribute these kits, and someone takes people out of the active combat zone,» Andriy shares about the organization of volunteer assistance.

I have seen children in strollers in cities where there is constant shelling.

«I personally traveled almost the entire front line - from Kharkiv to the de-occupied Kherson region. In Donetsk, I was in Avdiivka, Lyman, and Yampil when they were just de-occupied, in Bakhmut and other cities. I sincerely do not understand why people stay there, but they always find reasons for it. The first reason is that they do not know where to go or what awaits them there. They believe that there is no such place where they can go. They believe that no one is waiting for them anywhere, that no one will accept them. And they don't want to burden anyone. The second reason is that they don't want to leave their home, which is dear to them, which they have nurtured, built, decorated, painted, and renovated all their lives. Mostly, it's older people. And they say that they were born here and will die here,» says Andriy Negrych indignantly.

But what is most striking is that on the streets of the front-line towns, you can still see mothers with strollers walking down the street. Or slightly older children who are actually cut off from such necessary things as education, walks with friends, favorite hobbies, and active leisure.

«It's hard for me to get into the heads of parents to understand what motivates them to act the way they do. Because it's incomprehensible to me. How can you not save your children, not save your loved ones? What can keep you, what can push you to take such great risks, to live under shelling with children? As a father of three children, I will never understand this. It's strange to me. Strange and incomprehensible. I have seen children in strollers in cities where there is constant shelling. And I saw little ones and slightly older ones. This is abnormal,» the volunteer says in bewilderment.

People in the liberated territories have come face to face with their own death.

The motivation of people to ignore evacuation has now become clear. But there is another side to the coin, especially noticeable in the liberated territories where people have experienced the most terrifying things.

«Unfortunately, there are those who are waiting for the Russians. They are very few, but they exist. But what impresses me the most is the fact that there are people who speak positively about the occupation 'government' and at the same time tell us stories about their fellow villagers who were beaten in the basement and killed. At the same time, they say that such good soldiers they were, they treated them nicely and gave them bread. This dissonance will never fit in my head. I think people just enter survival mode. There is hardly any ideology there because these people are psychologically going through incredible trials. They have literally faced their death,» Andriy marvels.

 

As local residents of the de-occupied cities and villages in Donetsk region recount, the Russians tortured and killed innocent people with particular brutality, especially those who had pro-Ukrainian sentiments.

«There are people who openly declared to the occupiers that they were for Ukraine, even refusing to take food or any other aid from the Russians. I consider them heroes. Many of them will unfortunately be found in fraternal graves, and many are already being found in basements with gunshot wounds and tied hands. These cases are known everywhere. I personally have heard many terrible stories from witnesses of all these events, who have lived under occupation for 7, 8, and 9 months. When you come there, people really want to share with someone, they need support. They need someone to listen to them and make it easier for them. They tell all these terrible stories that they have experienced,» continues Andriy.

«But the story that affected me the most was about a little girl who was 6 or 8 years old when she was torn to pieces by an explosion. It happened in front of her neighbors. There was nothing left of her. I cried so much when they told me this.»

When you get closer to «zero,» it's just a different world.

«When you get closer to «zero», it's just a different world. These cities have become like ghost towns, like Pripyat (city near Chornobyl). Everything is abandoned, there are few people, buildings are in ruins: there's a piece missing here, a tank hit there and it's burned down. There's ashes everywhere, broken glass everywhere, not a single intact window. These are very destroyed cities and villages. Rockets stick out of the ground, unexploded shells. Here you start to distinguish calibers, you distinguish «outgoing» and «incoming» (these are slang expressions: «outgoing» – the sound of artillery or similar weapon firing, «incoming» – the sound of a projectile approaching). It's impossible to describe in words, but these are the most destroyed places I've ever seen," Andriy describes the front-line cities of Donetsk region.

 

 

But at the same time, the volunteer is confident that the Ukrainian East will live on. All cities can be restored, and most importantly, their residents will return.

«I believe that there is nothing impossible in this world. This war will remain a big scar on the body of our country. That's for sure. And in order for this scar to heal, a lot of time is needed. But the East will definitely be rebuilt and restored. It takes time, but people will definitely return there. For example, if a vase falls on your kitchen floor, you immediately intuitively start cleaning up, collecting glass, wiping water. This is a comparison of micro and macro cosmos, but it will be the same with the cities in eastern Ukraine that are now very destroyed. We will want to restore them as quickly as possible, clean up all this garbage. We will definitely restore everything, rebuild everything, and people will return. Everything will be fine. We just need time and the victory that we will definitely achieve in this 2023,» says Director of Operations Global Empowerment Mission Ukraine, Andriy Negrych, sincerely.

The project «Ukraine: realities» is implemented by the News agency «Konkurent» together with the Civic Movement «SVIDOMI» and the charity organization Global Empowerment Mission in English for readers from other countries to tell the stories of people who survived the horrors of the Russian occupation.

Проєкт «Ukraine: realities» реалізовується Інформаційним агентством «Конкурент» спільно з Громадянським Рухом «СВІДОМІ» та благодійною організацією Global Empowerment Mission на англійській мові для читачів з інших країн аби розповісти історії людей, які пережили жахи російської окупації.