Virginia is for
Ukraine Lovers
Dear friends and supporters of Ukraine,
With your tremendous help and trust, over the course of the last seven months, we have created magic.
Our original goal was to provide immediate support to as many people as possible. Perhaps sending a few vans worth of food and supplies into Ukraine. Today, we exceed this original goal several times every single week. We are directly impacting hundreds of thousands across Ukraine, and our work has saved thousands of lives.
Our food program today delivers containers worth of food on a regular basis, 164 tons of food or the equivalent of 705,200 meals, to be more precise. Our ambulances are seeing non-stop use. One has already saved 70 people, the last we heard in July. And in our most celebrated project, our drones are actively monitoring the most important battlefronts of the war..
And these are just a few of the activities we engage in.
This war is not going away any time soon, and the outlook isn’t as rosy as the media paints to the public. Despite this, we are determined to continue supporting the people of Ukraine and eventually, help rebuild this country.
We invite you to continue the fight with us.
Thank you for all your support.
P.S. Reach out to us directly at contact@birdoflightukraine.org :)
Deliveries
164 TONS of food & hygiene products
When we first started, bringing in a van full of food felt like a lot. You can feed a small community with a van full. We now send food across the country by truckloads on a regular basis, with 164 tons (approx 705,200 meals) in food and hygiene products already delivered. We estimate that we have fed over 40,000 individuals to date, primarily located in hard-to-reach areas in the east.
Our food program continues to be our most successful and systematized program, with an average meal cost of $0.25 and steadily declining.
Nine Ambulances
To date, Bird of Light Ukraine has delivered nine ambulances to thoroughly vetted groups across Ukraine. As the war has ground into a stalemate, the majority of injuries now come from the constant and indiscriminate shelling across the entire frontline.
We have been informed that one ambulance has already saved 70 lives as of July.
101 Drones
Believe it or not, drones have quickly become among the most valuable lifesaving tools available in Ukraine. They are also entirely supplied by civilian charity groups like ourselves.
A single drone grants the ability to monitor the frontline safely and watch for invading troop activity. In this invasion, the best way to save lives is often to support those doing the most to prevent additional lives from being lost.
From what we are told, a dozen drones can save a thousand lives.
Medical Supplies - Too much to count
When we dropped off a shipment of 3000 TPAK decompression needles to the Prytula Foundation, one of the nation’s leading charities, we were told that this was enough to supply them for half a year. Little did they know that we had 6000.
As of this writing, we have also delivered 8000 compression bandages, several pallets of assorted medical supplies, and three water purification devices and supported Direct Relief in bringing in 29 pallets of additional medical supplies.
In partnership with our good friend, Oleg, the director of the department of health in our oblast, we have brought in serious quantities of the most needed medical supplies on the ground.
Long Term Projects
Reconstruction
Our long-term vision in Ukraine is to help rebuild the country. But to do so in an egalitarian way to avoid the social issues of the past. In order to achieve this monumental undertaking, we are hard at work developing the right network of like-minded influential people both in and out of Ukraine to make this possible. At present time, as the war is still ongoing with no end in sight, little direct reconstruction work can happen. We int//end to be ready when it’s time to begin.
These efforts will include enacting new legislation within Ukraine, development of new styles of urban design for the 21st century, and supporting the introduction of new manufacturing to Ukraine.
If you are interested in being part of the Ukrainian reconstruction effort, email us. We are looking for more allies to support this.
Orphan Care Reform
Every day, children are being orphaned by the war. An entire generation will grow up with significant trauma from the war. And without additional support, the orphans of that generation will grow up completely lost.
To tackle this problem, Bird of Light Ukraine is developing a 6-month orphanage care reform program to modernize orphanage care, starting with one orphanage in Chernivtsi city.
Working with childcare experts, we will be utilizing an iterative approach to reforming childcare. Each month, childcare experts and orphanage staff will be suggesting changes to apply within the orphanage. These changes will be evaluated at the end of the month for success or failure followed by additional round of suggestions to apply. The aim is to produce a guideline for orphanage care by the end of the working period that can be easily applied into other orphanages across the country.
Orphanage Playground Reconstruction
In tandem with our orphanage care reform, we will be rebuilding the orphanage in which our program will take place. From the playgrounds we have seen across Ukraine, we are confident that this will be the finest playground in the country.
Details of our plan can be found here.
This program is being built in partnership with Sasha Topolnyska and Lindsey Harkema, two architects from NYC.
