24th March 2025 – Sunflower Scotland delivers warm boots to help 352 people in five villages in the Borova district, near Izium. Located 10-20km behind the front in southeast Kharkiv region, this land is home to many old and poor people who don’t have the money to escape to safety.
The people are living in hellish conditions, missiles, artillery shells and kamikaze drones hitting their homes.
Those with money have fled to west Ukraine or Europe a long time ago. Who remained ? Those without money: the poorest, the old, the sick. It’s criminal that they don’t get much help.
Warm boots are always necessary in a village. Even in late spring, nights in north Ukraine are still cold and the temperature drops below the freezing point. Old people lived in poverty for three years of the war. They need boots but often cannot afford to spend 500 hryvnia (20% of their monthly pension) to buy a new pair. They often don’t have enough to eat.
Supporting the local economy
We purchased boots in Ukraine, because we are supporting the local economy. We bought them directly from a factory in west Ukraine. They shipped the boots on two pallets to Kharkiv, where our Kharkiv representative Vitaliy Hryhorov picked them up.
Our chairman Oleg Dmitriev and Stevie, together Vitaliy, packed them in Kharkiv in a garage, and loaded them into two 4×4 cars which we brought with us from Scotland.
4×4 cars to deliver humanitarian aid
Why do we need to use 4×4 cars? Because to reach really poor people, you need to drive in remote villages.
Why we cannot rent them in Ukraine? Because Ukrainians don’t rent cars to go to really dangerous frontline areas. Drones are specifically targeting 4×4 vehicles, and it is hard and dangerous to get aid to people.
On the morning of 24th March, we set off from Kharkiv. We delivered the boots directly to the people in the Borova district: the villages of Pidvysoke, Myrne, Yasynovate, Parnuvate, Kalynove.
The road Kharkiv – Izium was really good, but the stretch of the road to the Borova district was tough. Part of the road is an old ruined tarmac road, and the last few miles it goes through the fields.
Aid distribution
After arriving to Pidvysoke, we unloaded boots into several piles based on size: 39-40, 41-21, 43-44, etc. So that people could come, and quickly find the boots they needed. We don’t want to keep them for long – the quicker they disperse, the better.
When we started distributing boots, we saw how old women were taking off their old boots, which were falling apart, putting on new boots and heading home. The poverty is staggering. This is how we knew we brought them what they needed.
One woman told Oleg how she lost both her sons: one killed in Bakhmut and another one in Kupyansk. It’s heartbreaking. How can a mother continue living? This is the price of the war which simple people are paying.
An old man showed Oleg photos on his phone, how he finds missiles and unexploded artillery shells in his allotment. He says, they often fall and don’t explode. So he calls the soldiers to come and defuse them, and take them away.
Big thanks to our donors
We sincerely thank all our supporters and donors. Thank you for donating: you can see that your help is getting where it is really needed.
P.S. This work is dangerous. We are not exaggerating. But if we don’t help those people, who will? With the USA and the UK having cancelled the international aid programmes, how are the poorest people supposed to survive?
Please support our work if you can. Every penny will help. We don’t pay ourselves and use everything we collect to help the people of Ukraine. Thank you!
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