ENGVolunteering phenomenon in Ukraine: Supplying the army, equipping hospitals, rebuilding homes

Volunteering, revamped

Over 1,700 civil society and volunteering organisations have been created in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion to deal with humanitarian aid alone. Over 400,000 users have registered using the Volunteer Platform, which was first launched by UNICEF in March 2021. The Come Back Alive Foundation [which has provided assistance to the Ukrainian military since 2014] has delivered more aid to the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the full-scale war than in the previous eight years (approximately 55 million dollars).

"There is no Ukrainian volunteering phenomenon, it's just one of the instruments of the nation's total resistance," Come Back Alive founder Vitaliy Deineha tells us. "What [facilitated] it were just two factors: social media and the services that help you send money, from credit card to credit card, from one PayPal account to another."

Between January and July 2022, 86% Ukrainians donated money and 33% helped as volunteers, 39% of whom started volunteering after 24 February. Four out of five donors gave money to the army, and the average monthly donation increased almost tenfold compared to 2021, according to a study by the Zagoriy Foundation and the Socioinform agency. 

In addition to this new crop of volunteers, several organisations that were established in 2014, but had at some point suspended their activities, have been revived. Among them is the Zhraia [from Ukrainian for pack or flock], which was set up by a group of friends who gathered in a pub on Antonovycha Street in Kyiv and organised a “night watch” during the Euromaidan [also known as the Revolution of Dignity]. The team then began to help equip the military in the ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation zone, which designated Ukraine’s military operation against Russian forces in Donbas], which was critically needed in 2014, at the beginning of hostilities. But when the intensity of the hostilities subsided and the state’s ability to provide for the military increased, the Zhraia members resumed their regular work and projects, putting volunteering on the back burner.

Talinovska added that Zhraia has grown enormously compared to 2014 and 2015: “Some people may leave, but they come back after a bit of a break. We are in it for the long haul. We have a lot of experience in voluntary work, we’re already past this youthful exuberance when you just work until you burn out; now everyone seems to be able to adequately assess their own strength and available resources.”

Zhraia is one of several organisations with more than one stream of activity: receiving, processing, and fulfilling requests from the Armed Forces of Ukraine; purchasing equipment and medicine for hospitals; and providing humanitarian aid to civilians. However, new challenges created by the full-scale war have prompted several organisations to take up more specific focuses, while at the same time establishing better communication with one another in order to share the military and civilian requests they receive.

Winter is drawing closer

The arrival of autumn has brought about new challenges for volunteers in Ukraine, mostly related to preparing for winter, which might well become the hardest winter in Ukraine’s history.

SVOI determined that their major task this autumn would be to set up shelters that could welcome internally displaced people throughout the winter. Together with the World to Ukrainians charitable foundation they opened their first shelter with a 100-person capacity at an industrial plant in Zaporizhzhia in April. Another shelter, this one with a capacity to house 250-400 people, will be opened soon.

The Coordination Centre for volunteers in Dnipro similarly said that the cold season poses a major challenge. The volunteers at the centre have sewn around 5,000 uniforms for Ukrainian soldiers over the course of the summer; it is much more difficult to take care of winter uniforms.

Now that people are returning to recently liberated territories, there is another pressing demand: to rebuild homes that have been destroyed. It is crucial that as much as possible gets done now, before temperatures drop significantly, because rain and snow, together with freezing temperatures, will significantly damage buildings if they are not properly conserved or restored.

Some volunteer organisations have taken up the mission to rebuild damaged homes, given a widespread understanding that the government’s resources are first and foremost dedicated to restoring public infrastructure, not private property.

This is how Dobrobat, a thousands-strong volunteer building “battalion”, has come into existence. Dobrobat is helping to rebuild liberated towns and villages in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv oblasts.

At first, the organisation intended to operate in Borodianka alone: rescue workers in the city needed help clearing rubble after the Russian occupation. So many people were willing to help that Dobrobat had to expand its reach. It currently counts at least 30,000 volunteers who have helped at over 100 locations. Dobrobat’s organisers say that in fact even more people have taken part in this work since some of its registered participants are foremen or team leaders who often bring a dozen additional volunteers with them to each location.

Dobrobat volunteers help with initial repairs: dismantling and clearing the rubble, repairing roofing, replacing windows, restoring facades. Other volunteer organisations are going further: they are building new homes at the sites of the destroyed ones. For example, volunteers from the Repair Together team, are known for clearing rubble in Chernihiv Oblast to the tune of DJ sets. Repair Together volunteers have gone from removing debris and helping deliver humanitarian aid to major construction projects. They are currently building the first six houses in the village of Lukashivka.

New challenges seem to only make Ukrainian volunteers more ambitious. They are setting up foundations and other institutional structures, trying to secure foreign investments, and even making plans for “after the war”.

Tytarenko is a co-founder of District No.1 charitable foundation, which was founded in peacetime. Its original goal was the renovation of a street in central Kyiv, but during the war the organisation has expanded its activity to all of Kyiv Oblast, and now plans to expand further, even internationally.

District No.1 volunteers have helped 583 families in the five months of the organisation’s operations: they have cleared away debris at more than 100 sites, rebuilt more than 15 houses, and cleared around five hectares of land in Kyiv Oblast.

District No.1, like most volunteer organisations in Ukraine, is struggling to survive on donations alone. The costs of running projects are rising, the economic situation in the country is deteriorating, and most organisations are hoping for donations from foreign investors and looking for sustainable funding from large international organisations.

At the same time, Tytarenko said that volunteers themselves are as enthusiastic as ever: “I don’t know how it works, but now more experienced people are joining us for substantial periods of time.” His words ring true for many volunteer organisations across Ukraine. After all, if you ask any volunteer in Ukraine about how long they are going to continue their efforts, the answer is always the same: “Until our victory.”