Russia pounded the Ukrainian city of Kyiv, leaving houses and apartments destroyed.
Millions of residents fled the city but are now moving back, often to just ruble and broken windows. So a charity named District 1 stepped in, putting out a call for volunteers to help rebuild homes.
“I really feel we are unified now. We know Ukraine is our home and all Ukrainians understand we need to rebuild,” said Andriy Kopylenko, co-founder of the charity.
Using social media, volunteers flocked to join the clean-up operations, clearing debris and trying to order some sense of normalcy. As one of the volunteers put it — a marketing manager in his daily life — “We are all different, different age(s), different interest(s) but we work here together as one and this makes me feel good,” volunteer Dimitri Niktov explained.
Andriy Kopylenko is co-founder of the District 1 charity, which organized volunteers to help with the clean-up.
One of the charity’s first goals is to restore a six-story residential block in the tiny village of Myla, just outside Kyiv. It was the victim of early bombing by the Russians. Residents were killed as they fled.
Now, with families streaming back, there is an urgency to make them liveable.
Mariya Popova, a 77-year-old resident, witnessed the horror.
“We were very scared and took shelter in the basement,” Popova recalled. “We called the fire service, but the Russian troops began to shoot at them, and they left. We sat and watched our houses burn.”
The recovery effort has also drawn in volunteers from around the globe, including Colorado native Karl Voll.
“I don’t have military experience, so I thought that I could contribute on the humanitarian side,” Voll said. “First there is the hands-on work I’m doing but there’s also just showing Ukrainians that people in other parts of the world care about them.”
“We know that it could happen again,” Kopylenko admitted. “Now we need to understand we are living beside a country that could start a war any day. But we need to live.”
“When I came back my windows were blown out and there was a lot of debris. (But) the roof and the upper floors were totally destroyed,” said Popova.
“But no matter how hard it is, there is no place like home,” she added. “When you are at home, the walls calm you down.”
