September Updates from KHARPP
An update on numbers, Gift Aid news, an event in London, and a video message from Kharkivshchyna
Over the summer months since we last updated you, we have repaired almost sixty more houses. These houses are located in six different settlements: the town of Derhachi, and the villages of Slatyne, Prudianka, Malyi Prokhody, Velikyi Prokhody, and Rus’ka Lozova. As always, we prioritised the elderly and infirm in this process, ensuring that those with the greatest need receive their windows and doors first.
Whilst we are pleased to have been able to complete these repairs, the need is growing as more people return home (usually out of necessity, rather than choice) and winter approaches. Ideally we would like to repair another 200 homes before the harsh eastern Ukrainian frost sets in, which we estimate will cost around £80,000. We know that this is a huge figure — but we believe that we can make it happen with your help. It would bring our total number of homes repaired up to nearly 800, which would be a huge achievement, transforming the lives of thousands of residents.
In light of this ambitious target, we are so pleased to announce that we have received UK charity status! After a year and a half of work, this is a huge achievement for us, and we hope it will lead to an increase in donations, thereby enabling us to help repair more homes in the run-up to the colder months ahead. If your company or trust has been holding out on donating due to our unregistered status, now is the chance to get involved and make a real difference this winter. We are also in the process of registering for Gift Aid, which will take a few weeks. However, any donations we receive now will be retroactively eligible for Gift Aid! You can now donate via our website and click the Gift Aid it! option in order for us to be able to claim back 25% of your donation. For donations direct to our bank account or via cheque, you can fill out the form at the bottom of the same page. There has therefore never been a better time to donate to KHARPP.
We want to share with you a video from Slatyne, one of the villages where a lot of our work has taken place so far. It gives a sense of the scale of destruction we are dealing with, and demonstrates the importance of our work in communities like this one. If you are a regular reader of our newsletters, you will recognise Zhenya, the village starosta (head of local administration), as he took us on a tour of the village:
We hope that this video gives you some sense of the reality on the ground, and the level of destruction that has been inflicted on these areas. This is particularly harrowing when one considers that Slatyne is only 60-70% destroyed and damaged; many of its neighbouring villages where we also work have suffered destruction to up to 90% of their buildings. We’re proud to support these communities with your help.
If you would like to hear more about our ongoing work as well as life in de-occupied and former frontline villages such as Slatyne, on Tuesday 12th August at 7PM, our co-founder Ada will be speaking about these topics among others at Primrose Hill Community Library in London. Tickets can be bought on the door for £5, with all proceeds going to our winter repairs scheme. If you are in the area and interested in hearing more, please do come and listen.
The full-scale war has now been ongoing for more than a year and a half. Fatigue was inevitable, especially as news outlets lose interest. We implore you to stick with us, and to stick with Ukraine. Civilians are continuing to die every day from missile attacks across the country, including 16 in a single strike on Konstiantynivka earlier this week. As we write this newsletter, reports are coming in of another attack on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine, with one death confirmed so far. We can’t provide missile defence, but we can ensure that we minimise the suffering of those who have survived these attacks through repairing their homes, and making sure that their surviving the shelling does not lead to their dying from cold this winter. We have, with all of your help, already achieved so much. Please keep donating.
Inspirational work by Team Kharpp. The future of Ukraine is the laughter of its children