24/02/2025
The world would be a much better place if today were just another February day that brings us closer to spring.
Alas, February 24 will forever be a day of our sorrow, a day of universal injustice, a day of the gravest trial. Three years ago, at five o’clock in the morning, Ukrainians woke up in their beds to the sound of explosions outside their windows. No one could believe it, but it happened.
The sirens began to wail, cities were gridlocked with enormous traffic jams, and women with crying children in their arms ran to shelters. Nothing more terrifying had ever happened in our lives, and, God willing, it is unlikely ever to happen again.
A few days after the war began, Андрей Ставницер and his partners established the Help Ukraine.center. We started working in Helm, in a small warehouse, with a modest team of Ukrainians and Poles who cared deeply.
Each of us found our own salvation from the shock and horror in this arduous work, in the cold warehouse, in the wind and frost. Each of us felt a little lighter knowing that we were doing something important. Helplessness is a very frightening, destructive feeling, and the Center saved us from it.
We believe that you, our dear donors, share similar sentiments with us. Three years have passed, and almost all centers similar to ours have long since closed, as the world goes on with its own life.
But we continue to work thanks to you. Over these three years, together we have managed to collect and send to Ukraine more than 9,000 tons of essential medicines, food, hygiene products, clothing, generators, and hundreds of other items. We have saved lives. We have saved spirits. We have restored faith in humanity.
While we are being destroyed, we create a chain of goodness—from hands across the world into the hands of those in need in Ukraine.
Thank you for this. With you, it is not as frightening.
