KHARPP Update Spring/Summer 2023
Hello! Just a quick message to say that despite our silence over the past few months, KHARPP’s work continues with your help! At the bottom of this email are a series of beautiful photos of some of the homes we have repaired over the past few months since our last newsletter - so do make sure to read until the end.
From May through to July, 220 homes in 12 villages were repaired. Most of these were window and door repairs, but we are delighted to say that there are several houses where we were able to provide even more comprehensive assistance, also funding roof repairs. Each roof cost us £1800 on average, including the wages of local labourers along with materials, and is obviously transformative to the lives of the residents. We would love to be able to provide this for more families, especially as the populations of the villages in which we work continue to grow, but this is only possible with your help.
One woman for whom we provided a roof, a door, and windows was Baba Anna, who lives in Prudianka. We were contacted by Anna’s son, who is currently serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He explained that his mother was renting an apartment in Kharkiv, however the rent was more than her pension, and even with his salary the situation was becoming increasingly untenable (Ukrainian soldiers often have to use their own salaries to pay for uniform, equipment etc). Aside from the practical impossibility, emotionally Anna wanted to be at home. Born and raised in the village, and now in her mid-80s, being away from home whilst coping with the anxiety of having a son serving on the frontlines, and the trauma of the village she loved razed almost entirely to the ground, all she really wanted was to be able to sleep in her own bed and plant her vegetable garden. We’re so pleased to have been able to provide her with the ability to do this. For the windows combined with the roofing and a new front door, we ended up spending about £2500 on her home:
Whilst we continue to field requests like Anna’s directly from individuals, our work is being done primarily in conjunction with local administrations. They are able to direct us to those most in need, who may not otherwise be able to get in touch with us. For example, in many de-occupied villages our work had been limited due to the fact that there is still no phone signal there after the Russians bombed the telephone masts on their retreat, and so residents were unable to contact us for help and we were unaware that many of them were still living in their homes. However, local authorities keep up-to-date lists of all those still living or moving back to each village, along with databases of all the damage which has been done, and having spent six months building relationships with them, we are confident that they are the best people to be working with.
We currently have a further seventy houses being measured in six different settlements, repairs on which will be completed in the coming weeks. This group of houses will exhaust the funding we currently have available, but there is clearly so much more work to be done, with hundreds of people continuing to contact us on a weekly basis. We are so proud of everything that we have achieved so far with all of your help, and don’t want to let down the people who continue to rely on us. If you see value in our work, please consider donating to enable us to carry it on by clicking on this link. Summers in Ukraine are beautiful and warm, but the bitter (and much longer) Autumn and Winter are just around the corner, and we want to be ready. The lives of over 500 households have already been transformed by our repairs scheme, and we see no reason that it should stop now. Among other things, we have recently received a request to help repair the windows of Kharkiv’s primary children’s hospital, which we estimate will cost around £3000 to fully complete. If you or your company would like to specifically help with this project, please get in touch at contact@kharpp.com.