December 2023: the winter volunteering season is open!

The first winter and last volunteer month of 2023 is over. Of course, it was intense and, of course, we will tell you about everything 😊 But first of all, we would like to thank everyone who volunteers with B50 and supports us financially!

The activists from the Clean Up! project did not change their traditions and worked in Moshchun almost every weekend.

B50 volunteers from the Shelters project have completed the transformation of the children’s shelter in Nova Hreblia! It was a lot of work, but we did it, and now the schoolchildren have a safe, bright space in case of air raids, which have become much more frequent lately.

They also began to transform a new children’s shelter in the Zavorychi Gymnasium (Brovary district, Kyiv region). Currently, repairs are underway by B50 activists from the Reconstruction project. After them, volunteers from the Shelters project will take over this location.

As part of the P.AGE project, the B50 community donated sets of 50 modern Ukrainian-language educational books to 4 libraries in different parts of the country:

• On the occasion of St. Nicholas Day, books from B50 were delivered to Kherson secondary school No. 39 “School-Family”. According to Svitlana Shibaieva, Deputy Director for Educational Work, our “gift” has already been appreciated by the students of the gymnasium, especially the psychology books for teenagers.
• And for Christmas, 3 sets of books were sent to Marhanets Lyceum No. 9 (Dnipropetrovska region), Savynsi Lyceum (Kharkiv region), and Kiliia Secondary School No. 3 (Odesa region).

The photo exhibition “Stronger than bricks” was exhibited in Kharkiv and will be on display in Ivano-Frankivsk for another 2 months (until February 28, 2024). So, welcome to visit!

The B50 volunteers and their work in the Kozachok kindergarten were featured in the German edition of TAZ, whose journalists visited the de-occupied Kyiv region, including Bucha and Moshchun. Read about the German journalists’ impressions of Bucha, Moshchun and the work of B50 activists here.

In December, we also celebrated the Volunteer Day (week) very actively, namely:

• representatives of the community attended the 12th Civil Society Development Forum “What will give us strength”;
• B50 director Ruslan Habdulov took part in the streaming conversation “The Work of Volunteers”;
• joined the photo exhibition on the Glass Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge organized by the Department of Public Communications of the Kyiv City State Administration;
• took part in the Volunteer Award 2023 ceremony;
• became St. Nicholas for children from frontline villages;
• celebrated their day with their volunteer “family”.

The month is over, the year is over, but our desire to help people in need has not ended! We thank everyone who was with us! More to come, more to do!