On 6 June 2023 the dam in the Dnipro near Nova Kakhovka was destroyed, causing catastrophic flooding. Houses, shops, factories and hospitals are flooded. The drinking water supply of Kherson and villages and towns in the area is also in great danger or is completely lost. Serious infectious diseases are lurking due to drinking polluted surface water.
Volunteers from De Leeuw Kyiv immediately left for the disaster area with the first relief items it had in stock: food and water filters. However, much more is needed to prevent a catastrophe: large industrial water pumps, more water filters and means of transport!
An enormous effort will have to be made in the coming months to overcome the consequences of this disaster, which will come on top of the war.
What is needed?
Water filters, water pumps, means of transport, and more!
Please donate via https://www.gofundme.com/f/noodhulp-verwoesting-stuwdam-oekraine so that De Leeuw Kyiv can provide maximum and structural help, including water filters, to the Ukrainian population in the disaster area.
Russian rocket hit apartment building in Uman, Ukraine
Kees Huizinga: “In a residential area in Uman in the middle of Ukraine 500 km away from the frontline… A russian rocket hit this building at around 4:30 this morning. I saw the rescue workers carry away at least one dead civilian.”
Dear Ukraine supporters, Kees Huizinga is one of the central persons in our effort to provide waterfilters to the front in Ukraine. His farm is near Uman, central Ukraine, where we stored our 10,000 waterfilters before successfully distributing these in the past months. Uman is now hit by a Russian missile deliberately fired during the night into a housing complex. Kees was nearby, this is his video. Several children and grown-ups lost their lives immediately while sleeping. There is no other conclusion possible than that the attack aimed to kill sleeping civilians. Indeed Chinese President Xi can stop this. The world watches how long it takes him to do what any honourable human being with his power would do.
“Four alumni of Wageningen University are involved in Rotary Club Estoi Palace International’s water filters for Ukraine project: Lieselotte Heederik and Guido van Hofwegen developed the Nazava Water Filters; and we (Emmeke Vierhout and Kees Huizinga) use the extensive network we have built up in Ukraine with our De Leeuw Kyiv Foundation for the assembly and distribution of the filters.
I (Emmeke) was asked by Wageningen University to come and talk about the project on the alumni day on 8th October 2022, which was broadcast online. And I was of course extremely pleased to hear that the University decided to support the project by organising a crowdfunding campaign and promote this campaign among its alumni network. At the time of writing almost €35,000 has been donated through the WUR website. And hopefully it will not stop here. Recent developments in Kherson, where the drinking water system has been completely destroyed, shows that the need for the water filters is more urgent than ever.
Emmeke and Kees”
https://crowdfunding.wur.nl/project/waterfilters-oekraine
Water filters distribution in the Kherson region
Some of the people who stayed in Kherson despite the occupation gather at a water filters distribution site in mid-October 2022. The volunteer provides some instructions:
“We will need your last name, father’s name, address and signature. Then we can start distributing [the water filters]. It will take quite a while.”
A volunteer in the Kherson region
In the words of the lady in the video who assisted with the distribution of water filters to citizens in the Kherson region in mid-October 2022:
“Thank you, thank you! These are the things our community needs. For months we have been without running water. The people need clean water. We request you to return once more.”
A family in Izyum
Water filters are delivered to a family of 11 children living in Izyum, Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine. The city was liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022.
Water filters distribution
Sacha from Izyum, liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022, receives a water filter.
Assembling of water filters in Uman, Ukraine
Water filters are assembled by Internally Displaced Persons in the storage facility in Uman, Ukraine, after which these can be transported to the families in need.
Nikolayev’s university building
On 9 October 2022 we interviewed Dennis in Nikolayev; you can watch the video here.
Stories from Ukraine
Early October 2022 the first water filters donated through Rotary Club Estoi Palace International will be delivered to families in the Ukrainian war zones. In this section on our website we will bring some of their stories.