💙Small Donations: Big Impact💛

This is United Ukraine co-founder Adam with the latest update on where your donations have helped the most. Since our last letter to you, we’ve distributed an additional $3,524.11 throughout the country - making an impact on lives desperately in need of support.

Since Nathan and I started this project, we’ve put a big emphasis on United Ukraine’s ability to get help to people who are cut off from traditional, institutional systems of aid and support. We tell you all about this so often because it’s true. Being small and agile allows us to get aid to families and people who don’t fall neatly into a pre-defined category determined months ago by large agencies. This week, we want to highlight Svetlana from Nikolaev as an example of how far we make your donations go.

We first made contact with Svetlana in mid-July. When the Russian invasion started, Svetlana’s husband Danilo was in a tragically vulnerable position. Danilo had recently started treatment for pancreatic cancer, and was in the beginning stages of recovery in January. By the end of March, medical care was almost completely unavailable. Several nearby hospitals had been destroyed, and even drinking water in Nikolaev was increasingly scarce. Danilo ultimately was put in the worst position possible: he got just enough treatment to be too weak to easily move to another city, but not enough treatment to ensure his survival.

Svetlana was under unimaginable pressure from multiple angles. Her long-time husband was deathly ill, her city was being actively attacked, and the threat of war eliminated her job and only steady source of income. But Svetlana’s primary concern was her husband’s pain. She reached out to us last month to help purchase about $50 worth of drugs for palliative care that were otherwise completely out of her reach. We were happy to help. Like almost all United Ukraine recipients, Svetlana was scrupulous about sending us photos and receipts for what your donations purchased.

Unfortunately, everyone’s best efforts in trying circumstances weren’t quite enough for Danilo. Svetlana reached out to us again this last week to tell us the bad news. In her (translated) words:

Hello Adam, it turns out that apart from you, I have nowhere else to turn for help. Many have promised, but only your fund has ever given us real support.

I was left alone. Last night, our city was shelled with rockets. We woke up from the explosions and tried to go down into the basement. My husband became ill. He lost consciousness, and then he needed an ambulance, a hospital and intensive care. The doctors did what they could. My husband died. His heart stopped in intensive care.

From the explosions, a vessel burst in his head: a brain hemorrhage. Stress, pain, funerals, it’s all very hard for me. I don’t know how to live on. Today there are explosions again, I’m scared. I’m thinking of leaving the city for a safe place, but I don’t have the means to do so.

I’m thankful that you have been here for us, and I don’t know what else to write.

Svetlana’s care obligations went beyond just herself and Danilo. Early in the war, she also took in her 72-year old mother, who we featured briefly in another letter over a month ago. Svetlana’s mom is, in a word, adorable.

During our earlier conversation, Svetlana couldn’t take her mom to safety because she was fighting for her husband - a battle she tragically lost. Now that circumstances had changed, she needed help again. A traditional program would likely tell Svetlana that all help had been allocated and she should have used her previous transfer on bus tickets instead of medicine. She would be out of luck, and trapped in the same building where Danilo died.

That’s not us. At United Ukraine, we don’t judge the decisions regular people make during a stressful time. War is hard. War is confusing. It is bad enough that the entire invasion has happened in the first place; no one needs to be told that they have to pick between their husband and their safety and they only get one chance to get it right. So we just asked Svetlana to research the best route to her relatives in Cherkassy and we would buy her the tickets. The total cost for Svetlana and her mom to find peace and calm this week was $38, or barely more than 1% of all aid we distributed in the last seven days.

That’s how far your money goes with us, and the impact you can make. Individual lives matter. Svetlana matters. And the next Svetlana will matter too. If you want to help us help her, the best ways are:

Via Debit, Credit, or Paypal:  At this link
Via Venmo: @UnitedUkraine (under the business tab)
Our Website: http://www.united-ukraine.org

And we accept checks via mail at:
225 Bright Poppy
Irvine, CA 92618

We never take your support for granted and are always looking for more ways to stretch these donations farther and farther. Six months into this war, Ukrainians are celebrating an Independence Day that they were never guaranteed. A struggle for freedom means more when you’re actively resisting invasion. And nothing makes me prouder to work with you all than to see the determination and the resilience of the people you are helping. I know, deep in my soul, that Ukraine will be celebrating their next Independence Day in the streets currently wrecked by the ravages of a war they never chose. And you all will have helped that happen. From me, truly, thank you.

As always, with love,

Adam