Update 7: Zie onze Facebook voor de foto's: https://www.facebook.com/stiptbv/photos/pcb.5484329551589606/5484328171589744 

It is already more than 100 days of war in Ukraine. This has been difficult for everyone in Ukraine. We didn't stay aside and tried to be helpful wherever we could.

We want to share with you a big charity project, which Stipt Ukraine has been constantly supporting with a donation and by personal input since February 24.

Right after the war started, the volunteers in Uzhgorod got an idea to arrange a temporary shelter called "Mom and Baby" right near the railway station. It was meant to make a comfort zone for desperate and hopeless moms with babies stepping out of evacuation trains in the middle of the night. So that they could not only eat, sleep, take a shower, but also get together and decide what is best next: either to stay in western Ukraine or to go look for a safe life abroad.

Locals and businesses in Uzhgorod, everyone has united and contributed whatever they could to build a shelter in a neglected building that the owner agreed to give up for charity. We donated more than 3000 euro to buy furniture, bathroom equipment and to pay for reconstruction works for this project. We are happy that the first floor of the shelter is now working full time and accepting up to 20 moms with kids per night 👶👼 Have a look at what has been achieved so far! 💪

We are now busy arranging a second floor of the shelter so that more displaced moms and kids can stay safe for a while, before they can find their strength to get on with their ruined lives.

We stand with Ukraine no matter how long it takes to win 💙💛

Goedendag, 

Hierbij het laatste bericht vanuit Oekraïne. Het was even tijd voor wat spelletjes en ontspanning voor de kinderen. Zie hieronder het bericht van onze collega uit Oekraïne: 

"We are on the ground providing support to Ukrainian families who fled the war and found their safety in Uzhgorod.
 

More than 400000 refugees are living now in Uzhgorod. Many of them packed up their lives in a single suitcase and left their homes in a half of an hour. Their children didn't have any chance to take their toys with them. For some of these kids, there is no more home to come back to, and no more favourite teddy bear.
 

We arranged playthings and games for kids that might help them forget what they lost, at least for a while.
 

We keep doing whatever we can to bring some comfort to the lives of children who suffered most from the war.”

Zie de foto's op onze Facebook Pagina https://www.facebook.com/stiptbv/posts/5361971147158781

Bericht geschreven door onze lokale collega;
 

“Every single day we see hundreds of women and kids coming to Uzhgorod from Ukrainian cities destroyed by the war. More than 1000 relocated kids have found their new home in educational institutions and secondary schools of the city.

We presented sweets, juices and fruit to them and have managed to make them feel better at this difficult time. We  can't make up for all the joys that these children lost, but our thoughts, sympathies and support are always with them.

Stipt Ukraine is really thankful also to local volunteers and local producers @ТМ Закарпатський пряник, @ТМ "Коник", as well as to @Територія мармеладу Lekvar in Uzhgorod who helped us bring smiles to these little faces.” 

Kort geleden hebben we in Nederland met elkaar Pasen gevierd. Een tijd om samen te zijn en lekker te eten.
In Oekraïne wordt de Orthodoxe Pasen gevierd dit is een week later dan onze Pasen. 24-04 was het dan zover. In deze moeilijke tijd waarin mensen in angst leven, is het juist extra belangrijk om hier aandacht aan te besteden. Zie hieronder ons verslag van de Oekraïense Pasen 2022.
 
"We joined the efforts of bringing Easter to Ukrainians who fight for freedom far away from their home city Uzhgorod. The Netherlands has its colorful Easter eggs, Ukraine has a tradition of baking a special bread called Paska.
The local bakeries in Uzhgorod joined forces to bake this traditional Easter bread. This has been sent to the defenders in the south of Ukraine. So, they can feel the support of their home city and the warmth of this holiday too.
 
#Stipt stands with Ukraine"
 

Voor de foto's ga naar de link: https://www.facebook.com/stiptbv/posts/5321008341255062 

After having contact with our colleague, we now know all the equipment to help the locals in Uzhgorod.

We are going to make a hub for refugees including those who are looking for a night or two before they leave to other countries. Since there are so many people (mainly woman and children) coming towards Uzhgorod. The town is doubled in its inhabitants, normally it contains +-200.000 people and at this moment there are +-500.000 people in the city.

Our local colleagues have found a local entrepreneur who is willing to provide us with his building free of charge for these purposes. We want make the place suitable for 25-30 people.  All equipment is available to be bought in Uzhgorod, and we have involved a local wood manufacturer who will make beds for a cost price.

In Uzhgorod we are short of sleeping equipment like bedclothes and mattresses so we have a plan to import them from Slovakia as a humanitarian cargo with the help of local charity organizations.

When arranged, the place will be maintained by local volunteers. 

Additionally, we have several facilities and centers around the region where kids are staying. We supply them with different children things they hardly have there, like toys, games and books, along with some food for kids (like juices, cacao etc) and medicine.

Here we will share the inventory list with the equipment which will be obtained to set up the hub.

• Separate bed -- 20
• Bunk bed -- 5
• Bedclothes -- 35
• Pillows/blankets -- 35
• Matrasses -- 30
• Furniture -- 1 
• Airco -- 1
• Electric kettle -- 3
• Fridge -- 1
• Boiler -- 1 
• Microwave -- 2
• Tableware -- 1
• Toys/games/books for kids -- 1
• Food/medicine for kids -- 1
• Transport/misc -- 1

With this update we would like to keep you informed about our donation campaign.

The donation campaign has not yet ended. In the meantime, we have helped a young Ukrainian girl. We have ensured that she has a roof over her head and that she has groceries to get through the first few weeks in the Netherlands. We are also happy to announce that the photographer of this picture will be soon working for us. 

See the picture on our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stiptbv/photos/5234072713281959

We are proud to say that at this point we have raised 19.615 euros for people in need in Ukraine. This will help them tremendously and we can start working to provide shelter for the women and children in our local city of Uzhhorod, where our own employees take care to spend the raised money correctly. 

We would like to thank our Partners who donated to our campaign. So far we have managed to raise a tremendous amount of 9.500 euros and as promissed Stipt doubles this effort so we end up with an amount of 19.000 euros.

Our colleagues, friends and family have also participated and donated a total of 615 euros.

This brings us to a total of 19.615 euro's!

To reach our 21.000 euro goal we will still need 1.385 euro's so keep on sharing :-)

Of course we will keep you informed about the developments around this action.