Future plans...

Yesterday morning we had a really positive, hopeful meeting with the director of a charity called Lighthouse of Revival, which has been helping vulnerable residents in the right-bank Kherson region since its de-occupation in November last year.
As we've noted in previous blogs, the humanitarian situation is extremely difficult in Kherson and the surrounding villages, and is further complicated by constant shelling. There are ongoing problems with electricity, water supplies, damage to housing from bombs, access to food and medicine, and education for children.

What we hadn't quite realised was the lack of financial and other assistance, both from the state and voluntary organisations, for people such as single mothers, the elderly and people with disabilities. This may be for situational reasons, e.g. mothers being unable to leave children at home, or elderly people being physically unable to leave the house to receive humanitarian aid. And also for systematic reasons, e.g. because of the war, a number of people have lost their jobs and there is no financial support for them from the state. This is more extreme in places like Kherson, where the majority of businesses have closed. We're not sure how people survive and we're even more convinced of the need to target humanitarian aid in this area.

Lighthouse of Revival is involved in covering the windows and rooves of bombed buildings, delivering targeted humanitarian aid, giving tactical medicine courses, and supporting education and recreation for children. It seems to be an organisation that is about hope for a better future and we think we'll be able to work well with them. We'll be traveling to see where they are based and what they do next week, also taking some of their aid in our van. 

We spent the early afternoon trimming the vines around our balcony, so we can actually see the street below!

Later in the day there was a certain football game that Bob wanted to watch so I walked to the main Taras Shevchenko Park. The statue of the great poet at the entrance is immense, dwarfing the people below and even the trees...

From this park you can see the harbour and shipyards, although they are now unnaturally still.

I thought that this was a nice way of dealing with the defensive 'hedgehogs' that litter the landscape.




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