Hi there,
I hope you and your families are safe and well.
Summer and its heat present many challenges for families affected by war, especially when homes are damaged or destroyed and fighting continues around them. But these challenges are amplified ten-fold when winter arrives.
No electricity, gas or heating, windows sealed with flimsy plastic sheeting, roofs open to the elements from bombing makes life exceptionally difficult for families faced with sub-zero temperatures. With winter fast approaching in Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, families are wondering how they will survive, let alone thrive.
The problems families face when confronted by war are big, there is no denying this. But we see time and time again communities helping each other, neighbours sharing what little they have, families doing their utmost to help themselves. They are not helpless but like many of us who have experienced challenges in our lives they need a hand to fill gaps they cannot bridge.
This winter ReliefAid will help bridge this gap. In Ukraine and Syria we will be distributing shelter aid and winter clothing. Syria will see a scaling up of our programme building tent bases, protecting families from flooding. In Ukraine we are starting a new project distributing heaters to keep people warm through the long winter months. It doesn’t stop there as our education, health, food and cooking stove programmes continue.
Our aid deliveries in Ukraine have reached 30,000 people to date. We recently revisited Ruslan, one of the many people I met in Ukraine, whose home was badly damaged and who received aid from us. He told us “I don’t know what we would have done without ReliefAid. It helped knowing there was someone there, even though I couldn’t see them, they were looking out for us. We got help we needed when we needed it. They weren’t just empty words.”
You are the people families affected by conflict can’t see. Alongside the aid you help us deliver your support is a powerful reminder that, amidst the horror of war, there is still humanity in this world. Thank you.
All the best,
Mike Seawright ReliefAid Founder and Executive Director
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"I am grateful to you for your help, for opening up your hearts and helping people" Tatyana Ukraine
Tatyana and her friend Oksana live in the Chernhiv region. We first met them at one of our shelter aid distributions and recently revisited them to find out if the aid helped. This is Tatyana's story.
"Before everything started I lived normally, I didn’t think about anything like that, although there were conversations between neighbours and on the news. Even on the 24th, when my friend woke me up and told me not to go to work or take my child to school, the war started, I didn’t even believe it.
My husband said the war had begun and I still thought that this was a “game”, I couldn’t believe it, we lived together all the time, this couldn’t happen, until the last I thought that we were still brothers.
On March 6th there was shooting nearby and I was told that it is better to leave. We have two son's and a daughter, but one son did not fit in the car, so he left the next morning. That evening my neighbours called me and said my barn was on fire. In the shed we had building materials, all kinds of electronics, and all my husband’s tools, everything burned down".
"The next day the house burnt down. We had lived all the last nights in the cellar of the house, if we had stayed, everything that burned would have fallen in on us. We would not have been able to get out and would simply have suffocated there. Only one cat survived, the other two cats and dogs did not.
Just before the war I fulfilled all my childhood dreams. Everything that the children wanted, I bought everything. Now my life fits in two trailers".
Tatyana has lost much but not her sense of humour, looking at the rubble which was once her home she shrugs her shoulders and jokes "They decided that we need to build new housing."
She is determined to rebuild her life and they have starting building a small house on their land. For now, needing somewhere to live, they have salvaged bits of building material and pieced together a small shack big enough to sleep in. The materials we distributed helped. Tarpaulins cover the roof, pieces of rope lash structures together, hammer, nails and tools are used to shape pieces of timber into walls. Blankets keep them warm at night and the solar lamp provides light.
Tatyana faces a tough future, but she has turned a crisis into an adventure for eight year old Anastasia. An adventure made possible thanks to your support.
"Thanks to the people who help, you try not to lose heart. You believe that everything will be fine, that you can handle it. I am grateful to these people for their help, for opening their hearts to people and helping."
