Will you help us save lives in Ukraine this winter?
More than seven months of war have left huge numbers of men, women and children living in desperate need of help. Food continues to be in short supply leaving many without access to sufficient food, or food of an adequate quality, to meet their basic needs. Families have made sheds and outbuildings their homes or are living in houses and apartments with blown-out windows and bomb-damaged roofs. In a typical Ukrainian winter, 105 days will be below freezing. Brutally cold temperatures as low as -20C are not unusual. The risk that thousands of people will die without our help is immense.
Father Vitaliy, who leads our Ukraine operation, shares just how dangerous winter can be:
“Last year our volunteers in Odesa found homeless people who had frozen to death, and Odesa is one of Ukraine’s warmer cities. Even if people don’t freeze to death, there will be a lot of amputations of fingers, toes and limbs, as you can lose your feet after only two or three hours in these temperatures. This is a very dangerous situation.”
We are currently providing life-saving aid to more than 23,000 people a day – with your help, we can reach even more.
We recognise that times are tough, but your donation really could help save a life this winter so please give as generously as you can.
For larger donations, please make a bank transfer where possible. To request our bank details, please email info@depaulinternational.org or call +44 (0)203 948 9872.
Depaul Ukraine is long established in the country, created in 2007 as a response to the growing numbers of homeless people and it is currently working in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of the country.
Even without conflict, homelessness in Ukraine means temperatures as low as -20C, frostbite, deep snow, lack of access to medical care and, crucially, a loss of identity. The street homeless in Ukraine often have no ID, they are lost to the healthcare and government systems. Because of this, there is no official count of homeless people in the Ukraine, but it is estimated thousands of homeless people are dying every year. Find out more about Depaul Ukraine page here.
A maximum of 10% of the money we raise is spent on fundraising and running costs and the rest goes to work on the ground in Ukraine and to neighbouring countries who are delivering aid into Ukraine.