From the window of my bedroom on Northern Saltivka, I could see the advance of the occupying forces on Kharkiv. It was dangerous for people to stay in their apartments. So my brother and I organized a bomb shelter in the basement of a school.

We took care of over 600 people, 78 of them were children. They just slept on the floor, in four rows. We had many of their pets in the shelter with us too.

There were people who were sick and simply could not survive without medicine, many elderly people with chronic diseases. Together with artist friends, we managed to organize help with food, warm things, and medicine.

My wife helped me do an extremely important and difficult task. She asked all the people about their diseases. She read the instructions for analogues of the drugs they were taking. Then volunteers outside the shelter searched for and brought medicines from all over Europe. With flashlights in our warehouse, we filled everything for the people.

At the beginning of summer, we closed the shelter and gave away the keys. People moved back to their apartments if they weren't destroyed. Some of them moved to other parts of Ukraine, and others evacuated abroad to Poland, Norway, Germany, Lithuania, Austria, and even to Canada.

Still, there are people in critical need of medications. While some pharmacies in the city are open again, supplies are limited. Many people have lost their jobs and many pensioners cannot afford the cost.

So, an ongoing part of our volunteering work continues to be finding medicines and distributing them across Kharkiv Oblast. We purchase mostly from Germany and Poland. The medications are delivered by volunteers in their cars who drive from the western border across Ukraine to us in the most eastern part of the country. We bought a car and hire drivers to help us deliver to the homes of people in great need.

Our funding still comes from our original group of volunteers and our Ukrainian network. However, after a year of giving, what we receive from them is understandably less -- now we greatly appreciate your donations. Thank you, thank you for your support through BAU!