Happy Christmas from KHARPP

As we approach Christmas and New Year, Ukraine is, once again, shrouded in darkness for much of the day. Russian attacks on the energy grid have taken out much of the power, and electricity is now rationed. Nonetheless, we are continuing our work, supporting as many people as we can in a variety of ways.

This autumn, we formalised the purchase of a house for a family from Novopavlivka, a village in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast which now exists in the so-called “grey-zone”, with heavy fighting ongoing. Viktoria and Yura evacuated in the early months of this year, along with their five children and Viktoria’s parents. They spent much of the year renting a small apartment in the south of the country, unable to work and with no idea how they would move forward to once again find the stability which they had had at home in Novopavlivka. The house which we have bought is big enough for the whole family, in a village where they have friends and there are job opportunities. Four of the children’s five children have already started school there, whilst Yura has started work. More than anything, we hope that it will give them the foundation they need to move forward and begin to rebuild their lives. The house cost around £8,000, and we anticipate spending another £5-6,000 on repairs over the next two months, including ensuring they have consistent water access. We couldn’t do this without your donations, and we are so grateful, in particular to the Telegraph’s Ukraine: the Latest podcast, and David Knowles’ family, who chose to promote a fundraiser for our work in order to honour David, the podcast’s founder and host, and to mark a year since his death. We are also particularly grateful to Construction Festival, who also fundraised for the house’s purchase this summer. There is something very moving about the combination of both local and international efforts which went into this purchase. At a time when global support for Ukraine can often feel shaky, it is so important to remember and take strength from how many people globally continue to show their support.

Our work on repairs for internally displaced people is also ongoing. As the frontline situation in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts continues to worsen, we continue to work with families who have fled the worst of the fighting to ensure that their new accommodation is fit for habitation, funding everything from the repairs of roofs and wells, to bathrooms and kitchens. We hope very much to collect enough money over this Christmas period to be able to buy another property outright for a family, this time from the city of Myrnohrad, which is almost completely surrounded by Russian troops. We need to raise a further £10,000 to be able to realistically commit to this, and so please consider donating to help us achieve this goal and provide another family with a place to call home in a safer part of the country.

Alongside this work, we continue to support the villages in Kharkiv Oblast in any way we can. Whilst the military situation means that our work on home repairs there remains paused, with the support of the village of Charlbury in Oxfordshire we have been able to support the administration in Slatyne with new winter tires for the car which we bought for them earlier this year, as well as repairing two wells for public use in the village. We will also this week purchase portable power stations and generators in order to help the village to get through the winter in amongst the power shortages, along with a wood-chipper to ensure there is fuel for heating.

It can feel difficult at the moment to cut through the constant noise surrounding peace talks. Nobody can say for sure what the new year will bring, but we remain committed to our work here. The war drags on, and continues to intensify, and regardless of what is happening in negotiation rooms thousands of miles away, this winter will be long and hard. Our flexibility remains our greatest strength as an organisation, as we continue to respond to the changing situation on the ground, for example this week purchasing an inflatable boat for the Kharkiv fire and rescue services, after theirs were destroyed in a Russian airstrike. We still long for the opportunity to once again be able to focus all our energies on repairs in Kharkiv Oblast, but for now are committed to working in whatever way we can to make life easier both for those Ukrainians who have stayed in their homes, and those who have been forced to leave them behind. Our work is only possible thanks to your support, and it is a constant beacon of light to know that, even after all these years, so many people still continue to keep up with our work and to donate. Thank you all, and Merry Christmas.