Welcome to our web page.

Our aim is to help impoverished low income families. Due to lack of work or having a single parent and who have poor living conditions we hope to facilitate these families a better standard of living by providing decent basic domestic and personal items to help in their day to day living.

How it all started.

My wife is from Ukraine and grew up in a small seaside town near to Odessa on the Black Sea. We have been happily married for thirteen years and have visited Ukraine almost every year for holidays taking with us our three daughters, whom I’m glad to say have all grown up now and leading lives of their own. The Ukraine is a beautiful country with some breathtaking landscapes and is full of rich diverse culture. Although poor, the people are hardworking, honest and friendly. They love to show their hospitality to strangers and make friends easily.

Over the years we had always been to my wife’s town to visit her parents and brother and most of the time what we saw of Ukraine was only a fleeting glimpse out the window of our car. We always drove as it was cheaper that taking five people by plane. The tickets were too expensive for us as a family. As we passed through the towns and villages we noticed how the village houses were in poor condition, people seemed to be wearing very well worn clothes. It was clear to see that village people were very much worse off than those who live in the towns.

Time Warp!

Driving East across Germany, Poland and finally Ukraine one could not help but notice the changes that have suddenly become very distinctive between the countries over the last ten years. Poland used to look the same as Ukraine four or five years ago with villages having poorly built houses and the people there looked poor.

Today however, there is a vast difference. As Poland is now in the EU, she is like any other western country with good houses, roads and shops and people look more prosperous. But Ukraine has been stuck in a time warp and nothing has changed much, it’s like being in the 1950’s. Houses are still rustic and poorly built and people still seem to be wearing the same old drab clothes which have seen better days.

Each year we would take our old unwanted items of clothes, bed linen, curtains, crockery, towels etc. We also asked our friends and family for donations of any items that they had they no longer needed. These items we would give to the people who had befriended us over the years and whom we knew they would benefit them somehow.

All the years we had been visiting Ukraine my wife never took me to the village where her grandmother had lived. She had not wanted to shock me or the children in seeing how poor the village was close up. It was not until last year when my wife inherited a small house from her grandmother situated in a village near from her home town that things really sunk in how poor some of these people were.

During our trip last year to visit the in-laws, and my wife taking possession of her inheritance we had decided to renovate the village house so that we had our own little place in Ukraine.

On deciding to do the place up we needed to buy a van. We happened to come across a Mercedes Sprinter (the bigger one) which a local carpet fitter was selling. It seemed ideal as it was good mechanically and was long so that we could fit a lot of stuff in it. Also someone gave us a large caravan that we could take with us to sleep in and also fill with extra items. It would be handy as the house was in no fit state to occupy in its present state.

Each year we would take some of our old unwanted items of clothes, bed linen, curtains, crockery and anything else that we could find in car boot sales that would be suitable. We also asked our friends and family for donations for any items that they had they no longer needed. These items we would take and give to the people we had befriended and who was in desperate need of these things.

Thank you for recycling!

Having joined a recycling group I managed to accumulate many items and appliances that still had life in them. An Oven, Hob, Washing Machine even fridge/freezer, table and chairs and still we scoured the car boot sales and managed to pick up other items which we could afford to add to the load.

As I was out of work I had plenty of time to gather all this and being practical with my hands checked out that they were all in good working condition. The next thing was how to get all this stuff over to Ukraine, the solution was to use some of my redundancy money to buy a large van.

So, in April 2011 we filled the van and caravan with all sorts of items that could prove useful in doing up the house and promptly set off. After 2 days we arrived at the border crossing between Poland and Ukraine. We queued up along with the rest of the cars and vans for which seemed to be around 4 or 5 hours. At last we reached the Polish check point and after a brief look around the van and caravan we passed the guard passed us through.

On reaching the Ukraine side the nightmare began. Although we had documents for the van we had none for the caravan. The guard kept asking for a registration document for it. I mean who in the UK has ever heard of having one for a caravan. It’s not something the DVLA issue. Needless to say they would not let us enter Ukraine with the caravan without a document. We were turned around back to Poland.

Now we had to think of what we were going to do next. Luckily my wife spoke to a stranger who told us to drive to a secure compound nearby. There we could leave the caravan until we returned. This was a relief; of course there was a small charge but nothing to speak of something like £3.00 per day. So after parking the caravan and having some rest we set off again to go through the border.

Trouble Ahead!

Again we got through the Polish side without problem. However once again at the Ukraine checkpoint the Customs Officers got really nasty and told us in no certain terms that we could come through with all the goods that we had in the van. We explained what we were doing and what the goods was for but they kept saying that we were tourists and were not allowed to bring in this item, pointing to some old doors we were taking, they were well used but would do a turn once painted, after all we were trying to keep the house looking rustic so it would blend in with the rest of the village not make it into something posh. The bikes however were ok.

So around again we went to offload the doors and put in the caravan after which we set off to go through again. Would you believe it this time the guard said there was something else we could not take through. Why did he not tell us this before, I’ll tell you why, he was playing a game with us? He would say ‘can’t bring that through you need to take it off and come back again’. Come back again! In total we had done the turnaround game six times before we emptied the van completely.

We could not believe how much messing around this was. We never ever had any problem bringing things through before. It was obvious this customs officer just did not like us and that was that. We even offered to pay customs duty and tax on the items but he still refused us. It was madness, if you looked in the van anyone could see that what we had did not have a large monetary value, we were not trying to import the goods to make huge profits as a trader would.

Some of the guards felt sorry for us and they could not believe how this one customs officer was behaving and they would have let us through. But ours kept saying rules are rules and smiling.

Looking on at other travelers they did not seem to have any of problems what we were experiencing, even though they had vehicles stuffed to the roof with all different goods the same as us. In fact exactly the same types of things, like doors, freezers and cookers.

Eventually we found some people willing to help us back at the compound. After listening to our story they agreed to take some items through and meet us on the other side. Of course for a small fee, by this time we were so frustrated we agreed to cough up and pay to get the things transported across so we did not have any more hassle with this customs officer.

We went through smoothly with nothing in the van except our personal belongings and a couple of bicycles and tools for the van in case of breakdown. After getting across all went smoothly and we continued for another 16 hours until we finally reached Odessa, just a few more kilometers to reach Illichevsk and we finally had arrived. All in all it took us 6 days due to the messing about on the border instead of the usual 3 it normally took us.

After a long rest we set about sorting out things needing doing to the house. On starting work we met the neighbours and got to know them very well. Seeing us working on the house they kept coming around offering their help in fixing the place up and made us feel very welcome and a part of their little community.

On helping us the villagers gazed in awe as they saw some of the things that we brought with us to do the house up. We had brought with us a second hand washing machine, cooker and hob, fridge freezer and our collection of tools (drill, circular saw, the usual tools one would use for diy and some gardening tools).

Although it seemed like normal equipment to us, the locals thought we were so lucky in having these things. They kept saying how much they would love to have them to make life easier but they could not afford them. Of course they have these items to buy in the shops but the cost new is out of reach for most village people and there are very few places where you can pick up a second hand one, even then the cost is seriously overpriced.

	The women especially were interested in the domestic appliances we had brought.

During this period we were invited into their homes and felt very humbled by the way that they live. We could not believe how little they had. No indoor toilets or washing facilities, an old cooker which would hardly work and looked totally unsafe to use, or sometimes just an old fire stove to cook with.

Very few had a fridge or freezer let alone a washing machine. Even crockery was mismatched and was chipped or cracked, children were wearing hand me downs which had seen better days. We then understood how they took interest in our second hand goods. Having said this almost all had a TV albeit it looked like it was made in the 1960’s. A television is about the only thing that we did not bring, there was so much to do about the place it kept us busy from morning till night.

On returning home we both felt that we had to do something to help these people and what to do about helping them on a larger scale to get the things they really needed to make a difference, not just a few items of clothing and materials that we happened to take with us as in the past.

Don’t get me wrong, Ukrainian people are very hard working and honest people with a strong sense of pride and do not easily accept taking a hand out, they are not beggars. But from an outsiders view they desperately needed some help in being able to get a decent basic standard of living.

We needed a plan, but what were we going to do, after all it’s just the two of us and for years we have been taking small things and items that we bought from car boot sales and charity shops here in the UK. We are not rich, just an average couple, I am presently out of work so money is tight with us, but still we manage to buy some things and cover the expenses of getting there.

Having thought about it for a while, and the fact that we eventually were able to take our goods to Ukraine for the house, (albeit with some hassle). Why couldn’t we do it again, but this time with items to help the villagers? So we embarked on another phase of collecting and car booting. Cookers, freezers, crockery, more clothes, pushchairs, kiddies’ clothes, drills, shoes, bicycles, garden tools the list goes on.

	Sure enough after a month we had enough to fill the van and make another trip but this time we knew what to expect and drove straight to the compound to meet with people to help take the stuff across the border.

	We made a kitchen and bathroom in the house so that at least we had the basics to feel comfortable.

Some families are using appliances that are not safe to use or hardly work at all. Notice the cooker which has seen better days

A typical village family would live in a one or two roomed house called a Dacha which has no bathroom or defined kitchen. They will sleep on what we would call a sofa bed perhaps up to four or five in one room depending on the number of children. Some are single parent families whose only parent cannot work due to the responsibility of bringing up small children and therefore have no income to support them and have to rely on any help that they can find.

The majority have to use outside toilet facilities (a hole dug in the ground and would wash or shower outside too).