Delivery to Kherson

We delivered fresh vegetables and fruit to several communities in Kherson today, with donations from our village of Trawden, family and others - thank you.

We can buy vegetables and fruit at the wholesale market in Odesa for a fraction of the cost in Kherson. Prices are inflated because of the war and people have little money because, mostly, they don't have work, nor do they have the cushion of a welfare state. We even heard that people have died in their workplaces, from shelling and bombs. There is a fear of going too far from home during the day and, at night, people just hope for the best, particularly those in high rise apartment blocks, like those we visit.

Before we reached home this afternoon, we had already been sent photos of children and adults, alike, from Anastasiia, a dedicated distributor of aid to her community...

But things are never simple. We're finding that the more we get to know communities in Kherson and the more people get to know us, the more need we discover. We already know three informal leaders of apartment blocks, who have vulnerable older/disabled people and families with children in their communities. Today I was introduced to three more - one with 60 people, one with 40, etc. in their communities, all equally needy.

But our van has finite space and we have limited funds, so how to square this circle?

One solution came from Anastasiia, the community mover and shaker we have known for some time. We suggested that she have a chat with the 2 other community leaders that we visited - they agreed that, next Sunday, they will distribute food, according to lists prepared in advance - so it will be more organised and more fair.

All this negotiating took some time and it became pretty noisy, with artillery fire from the Ukrainian side and returning shells from the Russian side. After our experience in Odesa last week, I felt that I wouldn't be quite as jumpy, but that didn't work out.

...a few things of note on the way home to Odesa - sunflower fields by the windmills of Mykolaiv...

The strangest beach we have ever seen - on an estuary, actually, close to Odesa, with tar-blackened sand. To the left of the photo, a woman can be seen going into the water with her walking frame!

Then, on our return home, we investigated a pile of rubble at the end of our street where we park the van. We discovered that it was one of the other buildings destroyed in the city centre on the night of the cathedral bombing. No wonder our building shook - this was, at most, 300 metres away. Luckily, it is, or was, a historical UNESCO-listed building so no-one was in it at night.

We're feeling pretty lucky!

If you are able to donate anything, however small, for fruit and vegetables next week, please: 

1. Open PayPal and, when asked for name of payee or email, enter trawden4ukraine@hotmail.com. 

Or, if you live in/near Trawden:

2. Use the Ukraine collection box in Trawden community shop.