United in Relief: Rokada deploys mobile teams from Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv to Vyshneve
For the first time, the Rokada Charitable Foundation has united emergency mobile teams to help the residents of the city affected by Russian shelling. The fund’s teams from the Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv regions joined their Kyiv colleagues in Vyshneve, where people were killed and major destruction occurred due to the attack on the night of July 6.
“Until now, we have never gathered as such a large interregional team to help people affected by shelling. This is the first time! In addition to me, a psychologist, a lawyer, two social workers, and a driver came from the Lviv office,” says Sviatoslav Melnyk, humanitarian aid distribution logician.
According to official data, eight residents of Vyshneve were killed as a result of the Russian attack, and 13 citizens are undergoing treatment. The missile strike damaged 253 private houses and 27 apartment buildings.Within two days, Rokada provided the victims with almost 250 OSB boards, 80 ESK kits, 150 tarpaulins, and 100 plastic sheeting.
Anastasiia Hryha, senior social specialist at the Khmelnytskyi center of Rokada, admits that she was struck by the scale of the catastrophe she saw in Vyshneve.
“At the same time, we see how high-quality the multi-level coordination is in providing assistance to people. The colleagues work so efficiently, harmoniously, and promptly… Great respect to everyone who is here during these days,” she says.
The senior social specialist helps Oleh Khanin, a resident of Vyshneve, to register for assistance. He arrived with an old iron wheelchair. The man says this is his only vehicle that survived the Russian strikes. And even that one is without tires — they burned in the fire.
“Honestly, I got lucky — the blast wave only blew off part of the roof over the house. If we hadn’t been home that night, the house would have burned to the ground. Same for the neighbor’s. It was like this: the strike and what to do? Also, the water is barely flowing. We started collecting it in buckets and putting out the fire. Thank goodness the firefighters arrived quickly; if not for them, everything would have burned completely,” he says, adding that first and foremost, he needs boards for the roof, as well as OSB boards.
Dmitro Stadnik, emergency construction kit logistics assistant from the capital office of Rokada, notes that over the past two months, the fund has helped almost 1,650 households in Kyiv and the region with materials to seal the damage.
“And over the past 8 days, we have provided assistance to residents of more than 700 houses. Yes, we are managing our tasks, but considering the increasing number of strikes, we see the need to consolidate our reserves. Together, we can do it faster and better,” he is convinced.
His colleague, Bohdan Sydliarenko, reports that yesterday alone, people in Kyiv and Vyshneve received about three thousand square meters of plastic sheeting.
“It’s raining right now, and people need to salvage their surviving property. And this needs to be done quickly. Colleagues from Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv are helping us a lot. Both in unloading the trucks — and 2 or 3 of them arrive every day — and in working with the victims. We highly value such solidarity,” logistics assistant concludes.
The Rokada Charitable Foundation is able to provide assistance thanks to the financial support of UNHCR Ukraine – the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine.
