Stanislav has been with YMCA for 20 years, and has been an active member of YMCA Volyn for 8 years. For the past 2 years, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has been leading the humanitarian aid program: together with his team, they collect, sort and deliver humanitarian aid to IDP communities, as well as to frontline communities, where most volunteers cannot reach due to broken roads and the danger of constant shelling.

Since February 24, 2022, they have helped about a quarter of a million people in Ukraine. Stas admits that often during his humanitarian missions to the frontline and de-occupied territories, he has seen many things that have influenced his perception of the world and even changed it.

My close friends know that I am an emotional person. But humanitarian missions at the front helped me to understand something. No matter how well you prepare, no matter how well you plan your trip, anything can happen, and mostly something goes wrong every time because it’s war. So you just need to adapt to the changes and continue to do your job, and most importantly, keep a cool head. If you have any problems, solve them, if you can’t solve problems, find another way to your mission.

Stas is convinced that you don’t need to be a hero for the whole world, it’s enough to be a hero for one person, because even one life matters. He shared with us a touching and at the same time scary story of a family in the Kherson region.

In 2022, we received Christmas gifts for children from the YMCA Scotland. We decided to deliver them to hard-to-reach villages in the Kherson region. Very few volunteers get there because of the destroyed roads, so it was important to support these communities. When we arrived there, we received very positive feedback. The children were happy not only with the gifts but also with the communication and attention. So we continued to support these families.

We kept in touch with a family with two children: 12 and 14 years old. They asked us to send them books for their classes, as their school library was destroyed and there was no internet. So our volunteers collected many different books and we sent them to their village. On Sunday, at 9 a.m., our volunteer in Kherson received the parcel and was supposed to deliver it to this family. Unfortunately, that same Sunday morning, the house was destroyed by a Russian missile. Only the children survived, their parents were killed. That’s why our team tried to help the children as much as we could: we visited them in the hospital, helped them move to western Ukraine to be in a safer place with their relatives. We also provided them with a free scholarship to our summer camp, You Are Not Alone.

Stas and his team of volunteers still keep in touch with the children on a regular basis to make sure they have everything they need.

I’ve learned that focusing on small local communities and working with them helps to build a stronger connection and have a greater impact.

Read also about making trench candle in YMCA Boyarka