September 2023: the autumn volunteer season is open!

It’s the last day of the month, so it’s time to summarize the results of September and tell you what interesting things happened in the B50 community during this period. We also urge everyone to support the activities of B50 volunteers with a donation)))

The B50 activists of the Clean Up! project worked in Moshchun, where they finished cleaning the yard at 125-127 Vyshneva Street (the largest location we have volunteered at so far) and also dismantled the destruction at several smaller sites.

Also in September, we repeated the format of the volunteer camp. This time, we worked in Zahaltsi, where we managed to complete the planned scope of work in two days (dismantling, sorting, removing the remains of the destroyed house), as well as relax and socialize in a tent camp.

The volunteers of the Shelters project worked at two locations at once.

In the shelter of the Nova Hreblia Gymnasium, the floor was repaired, the walls of three rooms were finished painting, and sketches for the fourth (large) room were started.

The Kolosochok kindergarten (Borodianka) was also in full swing: painting was carried out in the corridor and entrance group, ceiling defects were repaired in the corridor, pipes were insulated everywhere, and the lighting system was improved. In the corridor and the large room, we made sketches on the walls and started painting the shelters. So, pastel mountains are already appearing in the shelter, which will visually expand the area and space of the room.

Another interesting news about the Shelter project: the case of the transformation of the Kozachok kindergarten shelter (Bucha) was included in the guidebook of the Irish organization ChangeX! It is used as a reference example of how to transform children’s shelters. All interested Ukrainian kindergartens can learn from our experience and replicate it at home. Read more about it here.

As part of the P.AGE project, we have launched a fundraising campaign to purchase educational books for 50 libraries affected by the occupation / war. And so far we have already raised $1,000 to purchase literature for three libraries! These funds were raised by Americans Max (17) and Julia (13) in their Lemons for Learning project (they sell lemonade and other products at children’s lemonade stands).

Activists from B50 Care went with gifts to the shelters Dvorniashkam Dom and Dogs adopt Kyiv (they handed over cardboard, food, rags, antiseptics, probe food, and sewn beds). And as part of the Fluffy Sunday project, we dismantled the cages at the Best Friends shelter (Fasova village, Kyiv region). We also delivered food and household goods to the locals and, of course, talked to the shelter residents.

Many interesting things happened as part of the Country of Volunteers project.

For example, the B50 community is now cooperating with the Creative communications academy, whose strategists and designers help us find innovative ways to promote volunteerism in the recovery sector. We communicate to find interesting win-win solutions that are useful not only for us, but also for other NGOs in the reconstruction sector of Ukraine.

In September, the photo exhibition Stronger than bricks visited Mukachevo, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Chernivtsi, and Kropyvnytskyi as part of its nationwide tour.

And at the opening of the Ukrainian House in Tbilisi, another cool exhibition by the B50 community was presented, this time an international one! It is called Chronicles of the Unknown Ukrainians and aims to popularize the volunteer movement in Ukraine and abroad, to show the devastating consequences of the war, as well as the strength and unity of the Ukrainian people.

In September, the B50 community organized corporate volunteering twice: as part of the Clean Up! and P.AGE projects.

On the World Cleanup Day, which is held annually on the third Saturday of September, representatives of the Estonian Embassy in Ukraine, headed by Ambassador Anneli Kolk, joined the B50 activists in Moshchun.

And corporate volunteers from Melexis-Ukraine joined the national stage of the P.AGE project: they helped to form a set of modern Ukrainian-language books (some publications were purchased independently, others were funded), and also chose the library to which the literature was donated.

Also in September, we:

• published a blitz interview with foreign volunteers;
• became the subject of reports by the Chernivtsi Promin and TVA;
• branded B50 volunteer vehicles.

The month was interesting and eventful. We may be a little tired, but we are not even thinking of stopping! We are going to keep working!