28-30 July
The Foundation for Development of Ukraine responded timely and promptly to the request to provide assistance to the disaster victims in the Western Ukraine. Former Eurovision contest winner Ruslana Lyzhichko was the first to help collect information about the situation in the flood-struck area. She took us to Governor of Ivano-Frankovsk Region Nikolay Paliychuk who helped understand where assistance was needed most of all. The time limits were levelled down on 30 July. At around 10 p.m. we decided to set off for Verkhovinsk area of Ivano-Frankovsk region. Unfortunately, access ways to 38 villages of this mountainous district were completely destroyed. Inhabitants were left without road communications, food, and emergency help.
Late after midnight we made it to Verkhovinsk area in our first truck with food. The drive was quite hard, no signs, sometimes roads steeped, nobody was there to ask for the way. We even thought once we would never find the place where they wait for us and our help was needed. Finally, we arrived. Head of Verkhovinsk District Pyotr Kermoshchuk was awake. This man had just taken up the post but everybody was surprised with the sincere responsibility he showed. Despite having stayed awake for many days, he joined us to work out a plan for the next days.

31 July
Early in the morning we visited district administration council and started coordinating our activity. We were waited for and received any assistance we needed at once. We need people to unload food – here you are; we need a guide not to get lost in the sky and land in the right village – here he is.
Our assistance plan pursued first to provide food to cut-off areas. Second, to repair roads and clear yards for residents to bring their routine life in order. Third, to provide other districts left without clean drinking water with water purifying units. First necessity food kits for locals (water, bread, sunflower oil, cereals, sugar, salt, canned food, pasta, flour) were purchased for the total amount of UAH 300,000. We also bought water purifying devices (1000 units) and heavy vehicles (2 units).
Two helicopters of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Emergencies were flying all day long. On the first day of flights we visited:
Yablunitsa village – 1,508 inhabitants
Probiyne village – 362 inhabitants
Shibene village including frontier out-post – 319 inhabitants
Goloshine village – 402 inhabitants
Gramotne village – 366 inhabitants

1 August
The second day in Verkhovinsk area turned military helicopters into transportation vehicles for civilians. Those who learnt about the base in Verkhovin town began approaching representatives of the Foundation for Development of Ukraine Viktoria Bondar and Svetlana Panushkina to help with their troubles. The range of problems was vast with children being left without adults or aged without care. But the most dreadful is when someone needs emergency aid in a hard-to-reach place. So, on 1 August the helicopter was much awaited by parents of a baby in need for urgent ambulance in Grinyava village. Fortunately, a military helicopter carrying representatives of the Foundation was in time and transported the kid to the “continent”. By the end of the second day as many as 12 villages had been supplied with food thanks to two helicopters provided by the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.
The list of villages we went to and helped evacuate people from includes:
Topilche village – 182 inhabitants
Dzembronya village – 236 inhabitants
Nizhnyaya Dzembronya -
Berezhnitse village – 313 inhabitants
Golove village – 1,458 inhabitants
Zarechye and Verkhniy Yasenev villages – 300 inhabitants
Stebni village – 660 inhabitants
Dovgopole village – 1,332 inhabitants
Bystrets village-
Krivorivnya village-
Zamagora village-
Konyatin village-

2 August
The third day was the most emotionally difficult. More and more people wanted on board. On that day an incident took place in a village. There were much more people willing to get to the district centre than we could afford to take on board. The situation was just about to explode a clash burst out. Luckily we could evacuate all people that needed emergency aid and took children to their parents. A woman with suspected infection disease was evacuated from Khorotseve village. Two children of the same village, whose parents had been in another region when the disaster broke out, were taken as well. Despite a challenging psychological atmosphere, military servants and representatives of the Foundation kept providing food to remote villages and evacuating residents. All in all, 40 people were evacuated by a military helicopter. With two military helicopters at disposal, we went to 14 villages:
Sinitsiv village-180 inhabitants
Lykhonki village-100 inhabitants
Goloshina village-402 inhabitants
Kaptorga village-50 inhabitants
Glybokoe village-40 inhabitants
Gramotne village-366 inhabitants
Gryneve village-362 inhabitants
Bila Richka village-160 inhabitants
Khorovtseve village-414 inhabitants
Ustieriki village-766 inhabitants
Beloberizka village-1126 inhabitants
Pasichne village-350 inhabitants
Burkut village-14 inhabitants
Shibene village-140 inhabitants

3 August
The crew of helicopters had to fly under complicated weather conditions on the last day, Sunday, 3 August. That day a civilian helicopter freighted by a construction company for a site overview crashed in a neighbour district. The news spread fast and made us less positive, but didn’t affect our schedule of flights anyway. The crew of military unit A 2595 (Brody town of Lvov region) board No.58 – P. Nedogibchenko, P. Schtanov, O. Hrib, O. Kozodiy, O. Movchan, and board No.52 – A. Bernadskiy, V. Litvinenko, V. Romanyuk, A. Abakarilov kept flying to render our assistance on time. A woman from Kiev, who had been operated on heart before the disaster, was evacuated. She came to Verkhovinsk area with her baby and husband to improve health but felt worse because of the emotions. She had been sought for for two days and on the second day successfully taken to the centre of the district. That day we could visit 11 villages including:
Yablunitsa village-800 inhabitants
Nizhnyaya Dzembronya-100 inhabitants
Chyornaya Rechka village-300 inhabitants
Khorotseve village-600 inhabitants
Perekhresne village-400 inhabitants
Probiyne village-600 inhabitants
Volova Dalnya village-200 inhabitants
Zelyonoe village-100 inhabitants
Golove village-
Grinyava village-
Belaya Rechka village-

We did it:
So, as of 3 August 2008 all 38 villages of Verkhovinsk area of Ivano-Frankovsk Region cut-off by the flood have received food. Altogether nearly 200 locals in need for urgent medical aid as well as children, pregnant women, and aged have been evacuated. Two heavy vehicles rented by the Foundation for Development of Ukraine operate in Verkhovinsk district. Our goal is to clear housing areas and set up transport infrastructure. We have provided water purifying units to Galitsk and Tismenets districts. The total amount of help provided by the Foundation for Development of Ukraine to Verkhovinsk district of Ivano-Frankovsk region made over UAH 0.5m

Thank you all!
The Foundation for Development of Ukraine expresses gratitude to the Ministry of Defence, the Verkhovinsk district administration and personally to district head Pyotr Kermoshchuk, the Red Cross office in Ivano-Frankovsk, personally to Ruslana Lyzhichko, and governor of Ivano-Frankovsk Region Nikolay Paliychuk.
We would like to express special gratitude to the crew working together with representatives of the Foundation V. Bondar and S. Panushkina during several days; military unit A 2595, Brody town of Lvov region; the crew No. 58 – S. Nedogibchenko, S. Shtanov, O. Hrib, O. Kozodiy, A.Movchan; No. 52 – A. Bernadskiy, V.Litvinenko, V. Romanyuk, A.Abakarilov; and the crew No.57 – V.Voronoy , S. Kravchuk, S.Omelyukh, N. Rozhkova, A. Gorbatuk.