In November KHARPP took part in the Dnipro Centre of Contemporary Culture’s Construction Festival, held in Ukraine for the first time since the full-scale invasion. Alongside our Livyj Bereh, an organisation with whom we work closely on our repair scheme, as well as Repair Together, and BUR, we spoke about our journey from volunteering at Przemysl train station to having repaired over 600 homes in Kharkivs’ka Oblast. By chance, the first day of the festival coincided with the one year anniversary of our first trip to Slatyne, the village where we have undertaken by far the largest amount of repair work. It felt like an important moment to reflect on how much we have achieved so far, but also on how far there is to go.
In many ways, life in Kharkiv and the surrounding oblast is unrecognisable to how it was a year ago. The city (for now) has electricity and heating, as do the majority of the villages where we work; streetlights are operational (at least until 9PM); not only have cafes and restaurants which closed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion restarted work, but new ones have been opened on every street corner in the city. Yet, in many other ways depressingly little has changed. The conversations we have with residents of the villages we work in could be word-for-word copies of those which we were having last year. The fears are the same; of a never ending war, of the Russians coming back; of the loss of loved ones. The trauma of living through occupation or on the frontline will take far longer than a year to heal, and as the war drags on the adrenaline which kept people going last year has clearly faded. The exhaustion is tangible, as is the very real fear of being forgotten. Leaving one babusia’s house where we had installed windows last month, she grasped my hand and, sobbing, told me to ‘go back to England and tell your politicians that we’re still here, and that we need them’. Nonetheless, persisting in our work is as important as ever, both because of the obvious practical necessities of repairing homes and supporting local economies, and also no less because of the emotional benefits. Giving people hope for their future and reassuring them that they have not been abandoned and that more help will come often feels like half of our purpose.
Thanks to your donations, so far this autumn we have completed 50 orders in the villages of Slatyne, Mali Prokhody, and Velykyi Prokhody, and are beginning work on a further 25 houses in Prudianka and Tsupivka with the aim of installing new windows and doors there before Christmas. We will then hopefully begin work on a new list of houses in the village of Rus’ka Lozova. If there are funds leftover then we will also take on houses in the town of Derhachi. As was inevitable, whilst we are so pleased to be able to fulfil this many orders, the requests keep pouring in. The cost of repairs is also slowly going up, for the simple reason that as the war goes on, more people are moving back into houses which have sustained more extreme levels of damage, due to not being able to afford to keep renting elsewhere in Ukraine or abroad. It’s hard to determine an average cost, but we are still spending approximately £600 per home. Still, whilst this is more than what we were spending last year, it seems a very low price to keep a family warm and dry. Please keep donating, especially as the brutal Ukrainian winter continues and we race to support those living through it whilst still exposed to the elements. In 2023, we have repaired over 500 homes, and are edging closer to 700 overall. As attention moves away from Ukraine, we need your help to keep up momentum and help us to sustain this progress into the New Year.
In other news, KHARPP has been in the press in various forms over the past few weeks; including featuring on the Telegraph’s Ukraine: the Latest podcast, in an article in the Times, and in a CNN segment. It has been so heartwarming to see the response from so many people who have discovered our work through these features, and to remember that there is still global support from Ukraine.
As always, thank you all for your support. For as long as you stick with us, we will stay working and supporting these communities, but we can’t do it without you, so this Christmas please keep Ukraine in your thoughts, and keep giving.
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This report of the work you are doing for Ukrainian families is a great spiritual lift, Civilized human beings have difficulty understanding how the Russians could act as they have done in Ukraine. Your work is helping!
Well done. All best wishes.