Ukraine volunteers bring elderly out of harm's way
In Ukraine, dedicated volunteers help rescue people with limited mobility, such as the elderly or people with disabilities, from shelling. Dmytro Maksymovych and his team have so far managed to evacuate more than 3,000 vulnerable people from highly dangerous situations.
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00:00Hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of kilometers behind the wheel.
00:04Since December, on average, we've been driving around 6,000 or 7,000 kilometers a month.
00:14Dmytro has been evacuating people with limited mobility and disabilities
00:19from the conflict areas since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
00:22Today, he and his team are rescuing 84-year-old Lyudmila Kudrashova
00:27from the northeastern city of Bilopilye.
00:30Thank God the evacuation went smoothly.
00:34Bilopilye is only 7 kilometers away from the border with Russia.
00:39The city is under constant shelling by the Russian army.
00:42Last week we were bombed right in the center of the city.
00:48I live in the center of Bilopilye on the main street.
00:52The bomb hit the house across the street.
00:55It was very, very scary.
01:01Dmytro has found a place for Lyudmila in a nursing home near Kiev.
01:12Sometimes we get attached to people, but we have to let them go.
01:16We treat these people not as strangers,
01:19but as if they were our relatives, our close friends, our family.
01:23And then it all becomes much harder.
01:26After the first evacuation, we had to see a psychologist
01:29because it was a very emotional process.
01:34Dmytro's Barrier Free Foundation has about a hundred volunteers
01:38in different regions of Ukraine.
01:41The volunteers work together with the relatives during the evacuation process.
01:47Yuri had no idea how to transport his bedridden mother
01:50from Bilopilye to a safe place.
01:53Dmytro's team helped him.
01:58They provided a wheelchair and they transported my mother in the train.
02:03They did everything well.
02:05They found a place for us.
02:07First we came to Trostenets.
02:09It was dangerous there too, but at least they didn't shoot at us.
02:14But the living conditions were bad.
02:16We had to constantly take care of our mother.
02:19Later we were able to find a better place.
02:25Then Dmytro's team managed to evacuate the entire Sokhon family,
02:29as well as nine cats and even some plants.
02:34They found a place to live in the Kiev region.
02:41The biggest challenge is to find a shelter for someone with a disability,
02:45to find a shelter that will include all the needs of this person.
02:49So if, for example, someone is completely bedridden,
02:52then they need to be given cooked food and hygiene services.
02:59As the war continues, Dmytro and his team receive evacuation requests every day.
03:05They say they haven't given up on their commitment to respond to all calls.