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Kherson Help

Displaced and disadvantaged people in Kherson are facing extreme hardship due to the war in Ukraine.

We’re delivering aid directly, on the ground, to people who need it most.
Please donate.

Who we help

Kherson Help is focussed on helping the most vulnerable people in Kherson and the surrounding area. Family orphanages, families with small kids, invalids, pensioners, displaced people and other vulnerable individuals are not able to feed themselves. Little aid reached the city in the past 9 months as it was between the frontline of fighting in southern Ukraine and the Dnieper. Now Kherson is liberated, the humanitarian conditions left behind by the occupation are awful, so we are continuing to support the people who have been receiving our help until the situation is improved enough that they no longer need us.

We are now supporting over 800 individuals who are struggling to meet their basic needs, such as food, medicines and shelter. Where possible we are also supporting specific initiatives from groups within the city, such as a group of professional cooks which is providing c.800 meals daily to hospitals and displaced villagers from towns surrounding Kherson.

To date our initiative has helped:

  • 3 family orphanages (24 children in total) with continuous financial help
  • 451 people in extreme hardship (mainly single mothers, invalids and pensioners) with a mixture of ongoing and emergency financial help
  • 139 disadvantaged people with regular food handouts
  • 3 other volunteer groups which regularly hand out food to another 213 disadvantaged people
  • A project run by a collective of cooks, funding them to prepare up to 478 meals for hospitals per month
  • the preparation and supply of 2 bomb shelters
  • ad-hoc financial support in evacuating those most in danger (e.g. near active areas of fighting)

97-99% of all donation money goes directly to the individuals and initiatives which we are helping. The other 1-3% is due to international cash transfer fees, which fluctuate depending on where donations are coming from.

Why Kherson?

Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is near to Crimea and was occupied on March 3rd. During the occupation a humanitarian crisis developed in the city, external aid couldn’t enter and basic supplies became too expensive and hard to find.

Kherson was liberated on November 11th – but currently the city has been left in a heavily mined area so it is still difficult to bring aid into the city. The Russian army occupying the opposite bank of the river and as they were retreating they destroyed vital infrastructure in the city (electricity, running water). There are thousands of people who need support until the situation is stabilised.

From March 1st the city started experiencing rocket strikes. At the time around ~40 houses and apartment blocks were damaged. In the autumn the fighting again grew closer to the city itself and this number is now far higher.

The human cost has been the most horrendous. The majority of people couldn’t continue working. Food prices rose, it became increasingly hard to withdraw cash. Anyone suspected of organising or not cooperating with occupation was arrested and imprisoned or disappeared. This grew worse over the past months and eventually volunteers were also hunted, at the point that people needed help most. Nothing has been certain. The trauma from this collective experience is both physical and mental.

About us

Kherson Help began with us sending our own money, whatever we could afford, to our trusted friends in Kherson, so they could help people in need. At first this was to get aid to people in buildings which had been hit by rockets. Soon, we realised that some individuals needed ongoing help, and others in the city who are in desperate need of support started being referred to us.

We are now a registered charity in Germany, Hilfe für Cherson (Ukraine) e.V., and are continuing to collect donations internationally.

Accountability

  • Our small network of volunteers inside Kherson is formed from people who we know are absolutely honest, trustworthy and willing to help.
    Since Kherson Help has been founded by expats from the city, we began from people who we know personally and trust absolutely to ensure that donations reach the people for whom they are intended.
  • We receive proof about the spending of donations.
  • Where possible we are given shop receipts. This is not always possible under current conditions in the city: in these cases we receive a note of the spending, the items bought and photographs of these purchases.
  • We keep strict account of all incoming and outgoing donations.

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