November 2023: B50 volunteers both here and there!

The last autumn month was extremely active for the B50 community: Kyiv, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Lithuania (!) – this is the geography of B50 projects in November. But first things first. In the meantime, we thank everyone who supports us and urge you to keep going!

As part of the Clean Up! project, B50 activists worked fruitfully in Moshchun (at several locations) and Zahaltsi (where they managed to clear one yard of traces of war in just one day).

The Shelters project has completed the transformation of the Kolosochok kindergarten ( Borodianka). Here, B50 volunteers repaired three rooms (a large room, a corridor, and an entrance hall): plastered the walls, painted the walls and ceiling, modified the lighting system, and insulated the heating pipes. After that, B50 artists applied unique drawings on the walls with a “mountain theme”. 

The activists from Shelters project also reached the finish line in the shelter of the Nova Hrebelia Gymnasium. The walls are already decorated with tourist attractions from Ukraine and the world. A few finishing touches and the gray basement will turn into an improvised traveler’s guide, which we hope will inspire children to make new discoveries.

We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the transformation of these two shelters: our talented volunteers and our reliable partners, TakeOff, whose employees supported the project financially.

As part of the P.AGE project, the B50 community donated books to 5 libraries of the third stage:

• The library of Shandryholove village (Donetsk region),
• Khrystoforivka village library branch (Mykolaiv region),
• The library of Bilopillia Gymnasium No. 5 (Sumy region),
• The library of the Ripky Lyceum (Chernihiv region),
• The library of the Kozacha Lopan Lyceum (Kharkiv region).

We were able to purchase literature for these institutions thanks to the help of:

• донаторамJohn Harthorne, a donor from the United States, who donated funds raised by his children Max (17) and Yulia (13) in their Lemons for Learning project to the B50 community;
• Ukrainian partner publishers who give us discounts of 30-40%!

We also began to form a set of literature for the sixth library, which is located in Kherson (5 km from Antonivskyi Bridge and 10 km from Chornobaivka!). A volunteer from Khmelnytsky, Nataliia, who together with her friends collected fiction books and funds to buy 50 books from the B50 list, is helping us with this.

The first Sunday of November was traditionally Fluffy Sunday, so B50 activists went to Best Friends and started preparing the shelter for winter – turning dismantled boards into firewood. They also brought humanitarian aid and talked to the pets.

As part of the B50 Care program, B50 volunteers visited the Kyiv shelter Dvorniashkam Dom several times. As always, they brought “gifts” (old clothes, beds, antiseptics, clothes for tails, collars, food, dried delicacies) and walked the dogs.

We are grateful to everyone who participates in collecting humanitarian aid for shelters. You make the lives of the tails happy while they are waiting for their families)))

In November, the photo exhibition “Stronger than bricks” was exhibited in Dnipro and has now begun in Kharkiv.

The photo exhibition “Chronicles of the Unknown Superheroes Ukrainians” was on display in the Lithuanian town of Alytus for a month. The official opening took place on October 30 with the participation of the local administration, B50 activists and volunteers from Alytus.

The girls from B50 presented the activities of the community and talked about the exhibited photos, talked a lot with Lithuanians, answered their questions. Also, on behalf of our organization, they conveyed official gratitude to the Lithuanians for the humanitarian aid, indifference and support of Ukraine.

Other interesting and important November events:

• as part of the Corporate Volunteering project, employees of the Gravity office joined B50 activists to help clear the rubble of war-damaged buildings in Moshchun;
• the official Google profile of the B50 community was created. From now on, when you google “B50”, you will see a “card” of the organization with our contacts, photos and reviews on the side;
• an article about Moshchun and the activities of the B50 community to restore it was written in the German publication DIE WELT;
• B50 activists attended the presentation of the poetry collection of their colleague Yaroslav and the wrestling training of another community volunteer Vitalii.

Thanks to everyone who was with us in November and will be in December and January… It is easier to do good deeds together, join us, there are interesting tasks for everyone!d