Support for two Ukrainian volunteer organisations during war time.

In April 2025 I travelled to Lviv in Ukraine to volunteer. I had been following the situation in Ukraine every day since February 2022 and I very much wanted to help.

The Lviv Volunteer Kitchen was started in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea, by two woman who wanted to make sure soldiers defending Ukraine could get food that tastes like 'home' and to create a place where local and international volunteers could come together to do something practical to support the soldiers. They create approximately 40,000 servings a week in dehydrated food packs that are sent directly to the front line.

In 2022 when the full scale invasion of Ukraine began, displacing people from front line villages and towns, two young people in Lviv started the NGO PTAHA (small bird), a volunteer organisation based at the main railway station where they receive evacuees. In 2025 the teams still meet 2 trains a day to help refugees from the front line with their luggage, shuttle them to temporary accommodation and help them get established in Lviv or move on into Europe and beyond. They have supported 800,000 people since Feb 2024.

Both of these organisations are run entirely by volunteers and funded only via donations. When I left to come home to NZ, I asked them what people in NZ could do to help - they said, 'just make sure they don't forget us'. This fund raiser is my way of making sure we can do more than remember Ukrainians, we can send them funds that speak to how much we care.