UKRAINE. FAMILIES IN WAR ZONE NEED URGENT HELP.

The war in Ukraine continues. And no matter how much we want to rest, no matter how much we want to close our eyes and imagine that this whole nightmare is not happening, we continue to work.

We feel a lot of support from all over the world and it gives us strength. During this time, we learned new skills, learned to work, develop and help people in unprecedented emergency conditions.

Odesa remains one of the most important cities that receives migrants, more than 70 thousand internally displaced people live here today, and millions of people have fled abroad through Odesa.

People continue to look for safe places. They come from war zones, from de-occupied locations, and our Accommodation Center in Odesa accepts them. Since the beginning of 2023, the center has provided 170 people with housing, necessary things and full meals. We evacuated 323 people with our transport.

The foundation works not only with families living in the center, but also with other migrants in the Odesa region and with local families with children affected by the war.

Thus, 94 people received legal assistance and assistance with documents, 258 people received medical assistance, and 250 people received humanitarian assistance in 2023.

This months, the Foundation received an urgent request for assistance from the municipality of Ochakov, Mykolaiv region. A small community was subjected to a terrible bombardment. More than 5 thousand private houses were damaged.

We organized a team of workers, bought building materials and hurried to Ochakov. Thousands of windows and roofs needed restoration. And we have helped hundreds of local residents renovate their homes and survive the cold period.

We pay a lot of attention to psychosocial assistance to children and adults in order to overcome post-traumatic symptoms, stabilize their condition, provide them with resources for establishing life in new conditions, and teach them useful skills. 415 people received such support in individual or group format in 2023.

We would like to share with you a few stories about our clients.

Karina's story:

Karina came to Odessa from the city of Kramatorsk, from where she fled with her two children from constant shelling and mass destruction. She arrived at the Foundation's shelter with little to no luggage.

She said that most of her house was destroyed. She and her family managed to escape to the bomb shelter, but it was dangerous to return to the apartment for personal belongings, as the building could collapse at any moment.

The loss of the house was a difficult test and deeply traumatized Karina. The depressed psycho-emotional state of the woman not only deprived her of strength and resources for action, but directly affected her daughters, whom she takes care of alone. Karina did not know how to calm the children and explain to them the changes that are happening to the family. The girls, in turn, showed their own experiences and anxiety with the help of hyperactivity and hyperexcitability.

The joint work of adult and child psychologists made it possible to stabilize relations in the family and Karina's psycho-emotional state, after which she was redirected to the Foundation's case manager.

During the accompaniment, the Fund’s employees helped Karina draw up documents for obtaining the HPE status and payments, provided housing first in a shelter, and then helped to find and rent an apartment, helped to get a doctor’s referral and conduct medical research, conclude a declaration with a family doctor and choose glasses for her daughter, who has a vision problem.

The resilience of Karina's family has been significantly strengthened, but our staff continues to keep in touch with her and provide support. The woman continues to attend consultations and shows success in working with emotions, feelings and their control.

Story of Boris and Olga:

Boris is a veteran and participant in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine in 2014-2016. Due to age and shell shock, he was unable to return to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the time of the full-scale invasion. But the war itself came to his house and destroyed it during a rocket attack in the city of Mykolaiv. He and his wife were left without housing, belongings and most of the documents. Boris's family was received in Odessa by friends. Initially, his wife, Olga, asked the Foundation for help in restoring documents. The staff of the meeting group noticed the woman's anxiety and offered to just talk to a psychologist.

Simple human attention and conversation allowed Olga to open up. On her first visit to us, she just talked and cried a lot... During further work, the psychologist noticed Olga's symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. At the same time, Boris, who also visited a psychologist, experienced sleep disorder and emotional instability - from aggression to complete apathy and helplessness.

For two months, the Foundation team managed to achieve sustainable positive changes in the psycho-emotional state of each of the partners. In part, the climate in the family was improved by the support of the case manager, who helped in the shortest possible time on issues such as the restoration of documents, the search for work and housing, consultation with a psychiatrist and therapist, drawing up a security map, access to humanitarian assistance, etc.

Despite the confident positive dynamics, we recommended that the family continue psychotherapy sessions already in a family format, which will allow Boris and Olga to be more attentive to each other's feelings and not withdraw into themselves.

2022 has ended. Definitely, the most difficult year in the life of Ukrainians in the last 80 years. The year that united us all in the face of the catastrophe brought to our land by the Russian aggressor.

When we announced this fundraiser in February, on the one hand, we had no idea how many people would need our help and how long this horror would last. At that time, we hoped to the last moment that ordinary people, children in peaceful Ukrainian cities and villages would not be massively bombed, tortured and killed. But we were very wrong...

But on the other hand, we did not expect such a powerful wave of support from the whole world. We received a total of 1,995 donations for families of war victims from individuals and organizations! Dozens of publications in the media, mailings with appeals to donate. Fundraisers were organized by people we didn't even know before. Now they are our friends who are with us at this time.

We were so moved when one of the famous YouTube bloggers talked in his video about a personal tragedy that recently happened in his family, and emphasized that no matter how much he is in pain now, it cannot be compared to the pain that Ukrainians are experiencing. He gave links and called for donations, including for our project. This impressive solidarity inspires us, gives us strength to work and does not allow us to lose heart!

It is thanks to you, friends, that we can promptly and fully respond to the most diverse challenges and requests from war-affected families from Odesa and other regions.

We will remind you that in the spring, the Foundation opened a Migrant Accommodation Center, a Humanitarian Center and a Social Cafe in Odesa. Thanks to their work in 2022:

• 5,193 migrants from other regions received temporary housing and other services in accommodation centers and apartments in Odesa

• 5,543 people were evacuated by the Fund's transport from Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa regions to other regions and abroad

• From 50 to 300 people received a hot meal and bakery every day thanks to the work of the social cafe

• About 9,000 migrants received informational support, including online

• 1,150 people received psychological support.

• More than 8,000 people in need received various humanitarian aid: food, hygiene packages, clothes, etc.

And in 2023, we continue to work to alleviate the suffering and restore resilience to thousands of families who were forced to leave their homes or were otherwise affected by the war in Ukraine.

Here comes autumn... In the spring, we sincerely hoped that by that time the war would be over and we could continue to live as usual in our beloved country. But the war stole this summer from us.

Therefore, we continue to work intensively, helping those who have suffered from hostilities. We continue to provide hundreds of people with housing in our transit center, food, humanitarian packs, medical and legal assistance, and help to evacuate to safe locations. At the same time, we don`t slow down the pace, scale and expand our activities.

Throughout our work with migrants, we are constantly confronted with the consequences of psychological upheavals and stress that they have experienced. Many are in a depressed or unstable emotional state. Children in their families are at even greater risk because the child's psyche is more vulnerable. Their development is negatively affected by trauma, loss of a sense of security, fears, changes in the usual environment and environment, life instability, as well as anxiety of parents.

We have launched a Psychological Service at the Foundation's Transit Center in Odesa, where 5 specialists constantly work with IDPs. Their tasks are to help people survive difficulties, accept reality, adapt to new conditions, find the resource in themselves to move on and restore their lives step by step. Psychologists work both individually with children, adults, and with the whole family as a whole. They conduct individual consultations and group sessions, using the most effective methods that primarily affect the stabilization of the emotional state of our clients.

Group trainings are held 3 times a week in each of our centers. Participants learn breathing exercises that neutralize anxiety, using the "Glass of Emotions", "Circle of Trust", "Interaction" techniques with metaphorical cards, art therapy methods, for example, drawing techniques for relieving stress, "My Family", "Tree", etc. .d. We are very happy to see positive results and good clients` feedback!

In addition, we are launching a new program to teach migrants in agribusiness. Such a program worked successfully before the war on our social farm for young people from vulnerable groups in the Odessa region. Now we are adapting it for adults, so that the migrants can get a source of income in a new place of residence.

Migrants should become a new force that will develop the Odesa region. And you can help them with this today!

70 days of war have passed... When it started, no one in the world expected Ukraine to hold out for so long.

We are proud of our people like never before! They became a model of incredible courage and heroism, dignity in the face of disaster. They do everything in their power and even more every day for our victory, for help those who are in need now.

Our incredible team in these 70 days helped more than 1,200 women and children leave Ukraine for Europe and start living in safety, in comfortable conditions. Before that, when they fled to Odessa from their regions where hostilities or occupation are taking place, they lived in the temporary shelter of the Way Home. They received hot meals and all necessary goods here. The children spent their time with benefit and pleasure: they sculpted ceramics, drew, made hand-made, studied English, just communicated, told their stories, because after what you have experienced, you just need to talk with someone...

We continue to chat with refugee families, we advise them, mainly on legal issues. All of them have successfully settled in different countries, they receive services and assistance there and are very satisfied. Our German friends bought new minibus for the Foundation, thanks to that we take more people every day to the border checkpoint.

We have found that more and more families who arrived in Odessa want to stay here or cannot go abroad for various reasons. Some are planning to wait out the “hot” period and come back to their homes. Still, Odessa is a safer place now than their cities, for example, Kharkov, Mariupol or Kherson. However, as a rule, they have very little money, because most of them have been out of work since February.

There are quite a lot of apartments in the city, hotel rooms are rented at a reduced price now. Therefore, we decided to launch a new direction of assistance. We are looking for housing for IDP families with children and rent it at the expense of the Way Home. Families either pay only utilities or pay part of the rent, depending on their ability. We provide these apartments with the necessary furniture, utensils, bed linen for comfortable living of the family.

Another important area: humanitarian assistance to families in Odessa who is in difficult circumstances, without income, including because of the war. We have distributed over 1,000 large food packs during this time, about a ton of clothes, shoes, hygiene products, diapers for children.

The products of our social cafe have already become famous in the city. Every day our chefs prepare up to 300 delicious hot meals, dough pastries. They are received not only by low-income families, but also by volunteers who help protect our city.

We also deliver to the low-income families and to volunteers artesian water, which we extract on our farm. For example, this is how we help the people in Mykolaiv, where the water supply system was damaged due to the bombing.

Our Foundation continues these activities, although the prices of gasoline and food products have risen significantly and their availability has declined. We know that this is exactly what is urgently needed now!

And we are infinitely grateful for your donations, which made it possible to continue our project, which is extremely important for the life and safety of the Ukrainian people!

So the one month of the war in Ukraine has passed. We cannot believe. It actually seems like a whole year or two has passed. And we still cannot accept that this is all happening to us.

But we'll think about it later. And today it is important to help those who need it most. Indeed, a huge number of people want to help people in Ukraine. During this month, the Foundation received donations from more than a thousand caring people from all over the world. This unprecedented solidarity gives us more and more resources and strength to cope with the challenges posed by war.

The Way Home Foundation team has streamlined all operational processes to maximize the effectiveness and coverage of the emergency assistance program for those affected by the war with Russia.

The number of refugees who receive comprehensive services: food, temporary housing and transportation by mini-van to travel abroad is increasing to 60 people a day.

While they are staying with us, the teachers of the Foundation engage children in pottery, drawing and playing. This is very important, because it distracts them from sad thoughts and alleviates the effects of stress experienced.

We have found good partners in Moldova, Romania, Germany, France and in other countries who meet our ward families, they help them find accommodation, assistance and process paperwork. All families are very happy with how they were received there and they send us photos from European cities.

Our bakery has evolved into a social cafe serving a variety of hot lunch meals daily for over 300 servings and thousands of different baked goods. We deliver food and artesian water for low-income families, for refugees (at the train station) and for volunteers.

All of our employees work in their places. Several women from our local Crisis Center have also joined in cooking and baking and they can earn money in this way.

We also started to work with the reception and distribution of humanitarian aid for low-income families: clothes, shoes, hygiene items in Odessa and Mykolaiv. More volunteers have joined us and they help us a lot.

We are sincerely grateful for the words of support and kindness that you write to us.

Slava Ukraini!