From the first days of russian’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, our long-time partner organization “Building Ukraine Together” (БУР/BUR) shifted their focus to helping Ukrainians in and from the most affected cities and towns. Having a trusted partner on the ground is a great benefit for Razom to make a faster impact given BUR has a large network of skilled and reliable volunteers across Ukraine thanks to years of organized rebuilding projects and camps all over the country. Now, during the war, these volunteers have transformed into agents of support to the most vulnerable groups in war-torn areas.

In early March, Razom decided to provide a second grant to help accelerate BUR’s efforts. From the latest BUR report, we can see that the funds were well spent, efficiently closing the gaps in provision and support. According to the report, between March 24 – April 10 in cooperation with other Ukrainian Education Platform’s programs, BUR teams have managed to:

1. help over 3,000 people with humanitarian supply in 12 oblasts of Ukraine; 
2. place over 20,000 people in temporary shelters and homes in the west of Ukraine; 
3. rebuild a destroyed roof in a Kharkiv multi-family building; 
4. organize and financially help with evacuation of over 1,300 people, including people from Mariupol through pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko; 
5. help a Kyiv volunteer group feed elderly people in the bomb shelters/hospitals and medical personnel (supporting over 1,000 people overall);
6. prepare and launch two volunteering camps that will revamp homes for over 60 IDPs in Drohobych/Ivano-Frankivsk; 
7. fund a sewing business that will employ 5 IDPs in Lviv region in 1 month and over 15 in 2 months;
8. deliver 75 fridges for blood preservation to 50 hospitals around Ukraine.

Thanks to BUR’s network, they successfully supported grassroots initiatives in the regions that have suffered most from the invasion. Here are a few of the stories from the BUR activists:

• Anna Ryasna (Luhansk region):
  BUR delivered humanitarian aid for about 300 people in Dnipro. Anna Ryasna, a BUR volunteer, later transported it to Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Fighting is currently taking place in these cities, and people have to stay in shelters for a long time, which is why there is a great need for food. Flashlights, batteries, mats, sleeping bags, medicines and food were delivered.
• Ilya Bakumenko (Donetsk region):
  Ilya is a BUR-friend and a volunteer for the camps. He organized a humanitarian headquarters in the city of Soledar, which receives and provides assistance to displaced persons. There is already a problem with food supplies in the Donetsk region, so the headquarters needed a lot of help. Personal hygiene products and food (canned food, vegetables, cereal, flour, pasta) were delivered to Soledar for 500 people. 
• Kira Okhrimenko (Sumy region):
  Kira is a BUR camp volunteer, participant in the mentoring program and the BURlab project management school. She coordinated the delivery of humanitarian aid to several small villages in the Sumy region. Priority was given to remote settlements which were experiencing difficulties with transport connections. Namely, assistance was sent to 300 people: food kits and sweets, personal care products, household chemicals, baby formula, diapers.

In addition to all the aid listed above, BUR has helped provide personal medical aid packages and food packages to those in need in Kharkiv, thermal clothing for civil territorial defense units in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, sleeping bags for the support centers for internally displaced people in Poltava, Dnipro Zhytomyr and Donetsk regions, and other diverse support for Ukrainians, who have lost their homes. Learn more about BUR and their support at their page in social media.

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