Volunteer construction battalion holds the reconstruction frontline: about 300 volunteers joined to help at the sites

Published: 20.09.22

Volunteer construction battalion holds up the reconstruction frontline. Last week about 300 volunteers from four Dobrobat branches joined in the urgent reconstruction of Ukrainian homes destroyed by the russian Federation’s invasion.

In Kyiv Oblast, the teams travelled to locations in Irpin and Kozarovychi. They continued to install window jamb extensions in the Irpin Academic Lyceum. This reconstruction is a part of the 2nd stage of building restoration. Dobrobat’s team members also removed the debris from the completely destroyed house of a pensioner in Irpin. Groups of volunteers went to the site three times: provided access to water, removed the reinforced concrete shelter, dismantled the basement of the house and cleared the territory of the house.

Twice the Kyiv Battalion, in teams of 30 and 20 volunteers, helped clean up the leftover debris of housing whose nine residents were left homeless. Ukrainian producer and performer Potap came to the location to support the victims and thank the volunteers for their good deeds and involvement into other people’s grief. The performer talked to the residents of the damaged house and volunteers. Potap and his colleague Dyadya Vadya sang songs to energize the recovery spirit of the team and the others. Moral support is one of the main aspects of successful cooperation.

Implementing an emergency recovery plan, for twenty days volunteers have been fixing broken roofs in the homes of Kozarovychi village residents. The Dobrobat volunteers dismantle and fix the roofs that were mercilessly shattered by enemy shelling. The reconstruction of Kozarovychi continues.

In Chernihiv Oblast, our battalion had been helping the residents of Yahidne and Ivanivka for a week. The urgent restoration of Yahidne, supported by the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development, is now at the final stage. Also in cooperation with the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development, Dobrobat began the project Yahidne 2. It is planned to restore 176 houses in eight villages of the Ivanivka community. Dobrobat has already begun to implement the repair work: they built structures for further metal and slate roofing for four houses in the village.
We are proud of the Kharkiv Dobrobat battalion. Despite constant shelling, they do not abandon the city to its fate. The teams cleared one of the city schools’ classrooms from dangerous debris. They also eliminated the consequences of air raids on the premises of educational institutions of Kharkiv daily. They replaced the damaged school and lyceum glass window panes with OSB sheathing panels to protect the premises from future damage due to weather conditions.

We are proud of the Kharkiv Dobrobat battalion. Despite constant shelling, they do not abandon the city to its fate. The teams cleared one of the city schools’ classrooms from dangerous debris. They also eliminated the consequences of air raids on the premises of educational institutions of Kharkiv daily. They replaced the damaged school and lyceum glass window panes with OSB sheathing panels to protect the premises from future damage due to weather conditions.

In the Sumy region, the Romny Dobrobat team began immediate reconstruction of an 8-apartment house in Trostyanets. Older adults and people with disabilities, who cannot equip their own housing before the onset of cold weather, live in this house. Therefore, the volunteers got to work: they mounted the pediment made of OSB boards, arranged metal roofing, and replaced rafters and collar beams destroyed due to strategic bombing. The work continues because the total area of the roof is 600 square meters. One-sixth of the area has now been fully restored. In Boromlya, the Sumy Battalion together with colleagues from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Sumy removed the rubble from the premises of Boromlya’s Ukrkoopspilka, which housed both stores and administrative offices. Volunteers plan to make more than one trip to this location to cope with such a scale of destruction.

To record the contribution of each volunteer involved in the reconstruction conducted by the Dobrobat team, the restored objects will appear on a transformed Restoration map. Dobrobat co-founder Rostyslav Smirnov and Serhiy Mytkalyk, the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Headquarters board, signed the corresponding Memorandum of Cooperation. The Destruction map will be transformed into the Restoration map, adding objects which Dobrobat is now restoring. Ideally, each object will contain three pictures: before the destruction, after the destruction, and after the restoration.

We stand side by side and help each other! We are grateful to the volunteers who make their invaluable contribution to our Victory and to all the people contributing donations to the reconstruction process.

We also express our gratitude to the partners:

◽️Michael Vasylevsky Charity Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for providing construction materials for the Kozarovychi site;

◽️Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk and Maksym Petliovanyi for organising the reconstruction in Kozarovychi;

◽️Volodymyr Pidkurganny, head of the Dymer community, and Natalia Kalchenko, the deputy of the Dymer community, for organising accommodation and meals for the volunteers at Morewell;

◽️Ministry of Communities and Territories Development for funding the purchase of construction materials for reconstruction in the Ivanivka community;