[double click links and buttons on mobile devices]

Dear Friends,

As Ukraine enters the second month of the war, Friends of Chervonohrad continue to be grateful for your support. 

Chervonohrad's Current State:

Our hometown, Chervonohrad, continues to welcome Ukrainians from the southeastern part of the country seeking safety in the west or Poland. Over 3,000 people - mostly women, children, and elderly - have arrived by train to Chervonohrad in the past month. Our family and friends on the ground keep us updated on their needs and the continued arrivals of people seeking refuge. They are also involved in receiving the supplies and distributing them locally, completing the journey of our direct and immediate support.

Your Donations Made The Following Possible:

Food and Basic Needs

• 4 Chervonohrad daycares have been converted into shelters for over 200 displaced mothers and children. We have been continuously supporting 3 daycares with daily meals and cleaning supplies, and this month we added a 4th daycare to our list.

• We’ve provided direct financial support to a total of 29 people including single mothers, disabled people, children separated from parents, and those who permanently lost their homes due to war. Funds have been used to pay for surgeries, cancer treatment, family relocation to new housing, and rent. 

Medical and Combat Supplies

• Supplied to date over 500 combat quality torniquetes, first aid kits, bleeding control mini surgery kits, Israeli bandages, gloves and boots. Thanks to family on the ground these supplies made it to Territorial Defense Forces and hospitals in hot-spot regions.

Connection Devices

• Supplied 70 power banks (some solar powered) which are key to maintaining communications in the areas with damaged infrastructure.

• Supplied over 100 headlights for territorial defense during night operations

Transportation

• Provided funds for gas to a Chervonohrad family friend to cover ~20 trips between west Ukraine and Poland delivering supplies

Clothing

• Boathouse donated 26 boxes of new adult clothing.

• A NYC-based organization donated 5,000 articles of kids clothing.

• All clothing is being prepared to ship directly to Chervonohrad. Donation funds will be used to cover shipping costs.

Education

• 80 kids' activity books, colored pencils and candy was shipped to Chervonohrad for the children in daycares just in time for Easter. 

• 54 tablets have been purchased for the refugee and Chervonohrad children impacted by war to join remote learning amidst continuous air raid sirens. We are collaborating with the city schools to provide the devices to children and their families along with educational guidelines.

A special thanks to our unsung heroes 

• Steven and Jennifer Raz and Cornerstone Search Group for the donation of tablets, solar power banks, headlights and Israeli bandages. 

• Jeanne & Bruce Lubin for donating kids’ sticker books and coloring books

• Solnyshko Daycare for donating boxes of colored pencils

• Livingston Camera for continuously providing prints of FoC marketing materials at no cost

Our Next Steps

• Launch a Spring Shoe Drive in NJ. Shoes collected through the month of April will be shipped to Chervonohrad in time for Spring

• We are in touch with an orphanage from Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine which is a home to 79 orphans ages 3-17. The children have been relocated to safer grounds in Duszniki Zdroj, Poland. The orphanage is in need of cleaning supplies and spring shoes for the children. A portion of donations from our Spring Shoe Drive will be directed to the orphanage. Beyond this, we’ll stay in touch and listen for how we can support future needs at the orphanage. 

• Continue to support the families living in the daycare shelters with needs they communicate to us.

• Continue work with the Livingston Department of Education to provide education supplies to more children in need in Chervonohrad.

If you would like to support any of these next steps, please visit our donation page or respond to this message directly.

It remains the case that these donations go beyond the financial aid and provide much-needed mental support and strength to our family and friends. Tablets for remote learning provide much needed stability to children and their parents living in the state of war. We are very fortunate to be in a position to help our small community in Chervonohrad, which is then able to extend help to many others..

Thank you for standing with us and Ukraine.

And above all, please pray for peace.

Слава Україні!

[Glory to Ukraine!]