Fiona4Ukraine

 Early on the morning of 24 February, 2022, Putin announced on state television that Russia will carry out a 'special military operation' in Ukraine, thus beginning the start of his full, illegal invasion. Yesterday there were demonstrations from Amsterdam to Australia, which our alumni volunteers attended and sent photos. Amsterdam, Netherlands... Brisbane, Australia... And today many world leaders have gathered in the capital, Kyiv, to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. I hope this surge of enthusiasm and support translates into action that will enable Ukraine to continue defending itself, and to be fully involved in negotiating a just peace. I don't think this poster is exaggerating what's at stake... This photo of the memorial for fallen soldiers in Kyiv was also taken by a volunteer, today. Another personal anniversary for me is the day, in March 2022, that my ex-partner and I travelled to Krakow, Poland, with the aim of doing what we could to hel...

 As reported in the last two blogs, we lost our main flour donor several months ago and have been using up current stocks. I posted an appeal to our alumni volunteers and there was a great response. Donations have been coming in and the bakery can run with adequate flour supplies for the next 9 months! On Saturday we used our last bag of flour before a delivery, just in time.    The generosity of our donors prompted Yegor, the co-founder of Hell's Kitchen, to send a message of thanks. He noted that they rely, completely, on donations. They never had grants from USAID, and so they were not directly affected by its withdrawal of funding for humanitarian aid projects. But Hell's Kitchen's biggest donor, Nova Ukraine (ironically, a US-based non-profit organisation), is trying to support the most critical projects that were left without funds after USAID was withdrawn. This means that Nova Ukraine has less money for its ongoing projects, with the knock-on effect that Hell's ...

As reported in the last blog, we lost our main flour donor several months ago and we’ve been using up current stocks. The last delivery, about 2 weeks ago, will keep us going for about another month. The fresh food produced in Hell’s Kitchen, 365 days a year, is vitally important to the city's hospitals, where it's mostly delivered. Hospitals continue to operate in very difficult conditions as Kharkiv is so close to the frontline (under 20 miles); there are daily bombings, deaths and terrible injuries to soldiers and civilians, who mainly receive treatment in Kharkiv city. The need for our hospitals to have good, nutritious food to aid patients’ recovery is as great as ever. The people in this excellent, moving video (made by a journalist friend of the kitchen) say it best of all. The bakery and kitchen use about 3000 kg flour per month, which costs about 54,000 UAH  (just over £1000 or about US$1300). We're hoping to find an organisation that can make an ongoing funding co...

I'd been thinking for some time about trying to get an English conversation group going in Kharkiv. It was our oldest volunteer, Vera (aged 76), who gave me the motivation to do something about it. She is the head baker on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I love working with her. She speaks only a few words of English and I try to communicate with my limited Ukrainian. One day, recently, Vera began asking me how to say things related to making bread rolls, like flour, yeast, etc. I talked to Liuda, who administrates Hell's Kitchen, and asked what she thought about an informal group for Ukrainian volunteers who want to learn English to communicate with foreign volunteers. She liked the idea and, within a day, had sent out the invitation below and organised a venue! The first meeting of "English with Fiona" was on Sunday at 4 pm in a local cafe. I thought perhaps three, maybe four, people would attend but eight came, which was really heart-warming, if a little chaotic because...

On Friday I was lucky enough to be asked to drive the Hell's Kitchen van to deliver a large donation of  1 ml syringes, which can be used for diabetic and intradermal injections. The van was nearly full and we asked around to find out where the syringes would be most useful, as there are a number of hospitals in Kharkiv. We ended up delivering to two hospitals - oncology and general - which happened to be on different sides of Kharkiv, i.e. about a half hour's drive from one to the other. The van was fairly easy to drive, other than a crack in the windscreen on the driver's side, just at eye level! The city is NOT easy to drive in if you're not used to it - there are some strange rules (to foreigners) regarding beng able to turn into oncoming traffic and vice versa; as it's a large city there are often several traffic lanes, which have a habit of disappearing or merging into tram tracks! Luckily, I had an excellent navigator and, with regard to finding the right hos...