Restoring Ukrainian homes and strengthening faith in better times
Published: Dec 16, 2024 Reading time: 1 minute Share: Share an articleSeeing how we improve people's lives is the best motivation for the People in Need team. With financial support from the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine through the "SYLA" project, we repaired 267 houses in Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts. This means that more than 600 people can stay in their own homes, in warmth and comfort. See the progress made in liberated villages in the north of Kyiv Oblast, which suffered significant damage. Although more than two years have passed since the liberation, the residents are still recovering from their experiences.
Houses in the village of Varivsk that were destroyed by shelling. (© Kateryna Smetana )
The Kononenko family in front of their house. The family believe that they are fortunate because the neighbouring houses were burned down as a result of the fighting. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Anatolii goes down to the basement, where he and his wife hid from the explosions. (© Kateryna Smetana )
The couple's cat, Tymokha, was the first to run to the basement during the shelling. (© Kateryna Smetana )
We installed the door behind Anatoliy. We also replaced the damaged windows and roof. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Anatolii and Alevtyna show how they held hands during the shelling. The couple has been together for 53 years. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Alyona Kovryha with her children: Nazar, Mykyta, and Yelyzaveta. (© Kateryna Smetana )
The ceiling in the living room of a large family is riddled with fragments from shells that exploded near their home. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Alyona shows the children's room, which was repaired with the funds we provided. (© Kateryna Smetana )
There are also holes in the facade of the house from shelling. When the family returned home after liberation, there was not a single surviving window in their house. We replaced the roof, windows, and doors. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Vasyl Odeniuk in his yard in Obukhovychi. The Russians occupied this village. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Vasyl shows us the door he installed with our financial aid. The original doors were destroyed by the Russians when they tried to break into his house. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Vasyl used the money to replace shell-damaged equipment and restore the house's water supply. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Liubov and Serhii Hrybanov from the village of Olizarivka, which was also occupied. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Liubov shows one of the seven windows we installed and the cracks that appeared on the house after the explosions. (© Kateryna Smetana )
A shell fragment found in their yard. (© Kateryna Smetana )
The stove in the couple's house. When the owners lit it to cook, the Russians threatened to shoot their house from a tank. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Liubov takes a bag of crackers from the pantry, which she dried in case the Russians invaded again. Like other residents, she and her husband ate canned food and leftovers for more than a month. There was no bread in the village during the occupation. (© Kateryna Smetana )
Liubov and Serhii dream of peace and the opportunity to gather their children and grandchildren at the family table. (© Kateryna Smetana )
A sticker on one of the houses we repaired. In total, we helped 24 families in Olizarivka to restore their homes. (© Kateryna Smetana )
