New home

Anastasia Vasilievna with her small child and two elderly parents were forced to flee their own home in Irpen in early March. This happened not only because their hometown was occupied, but also because a Russian shell destroyed their homes. There was nowhere to hide, the shack had a destroyed roof, mangled walls, windows were broken, and the fence was blown down like a piece of paper by the wind. Now they live in the ruined house with their surviving family, but disfigured by fate. Before the war, Anastasia Vasilievna worked as a cook and cleaned with a friend in the office, supporting her family without her husband. Now that job is gone, and there is simply no money to rebuild the destroyed housing before the cold weather arrives.

Svetlana lives in Irpen with her husband and neighbors in the same destroyed house. On March 22, on a big religious holiday, their house was destroyed by a Russian shell. All the time they were under occupation, in a ruined house, surviving as best they could. There was no food, the water was taken under the bullets. Every day, risking his life, Svetlana's husband went in search of food to feed all the inhabitants. They recall all the events with tears in their eyes, not understanding how this could happen in the 21st century.

There are many such families in Irpen. Those who have stamped this war in their memory forever. After de-occupation, the war constantly reminds them of its existence with no roof over their heads, mangled walls and film instead of windows.

To draw attention to the stories of people whose homes were destroyed by the Russian occupiers, the Association of Ukrainian Producers (AUP) created the documentary film "The Lost Home," whose authors traveled around the Kiev region where the Russian army was stationed in the spring of 2022 – Borodyanka, Bucha, Irpen, Makarov, Andreevka, Babintsy, Filippovichi, Dmitrovka, Fasova – and collected the stories of people and their losses caused by war.

After seeing the stories of the film's characters Andrei Tolpiga returning to his stable in Bucha, and Kristina Safaryan coming to her animal shelter in Fasova, Nina Isinchuk and Anna Petrushenko from Andreevka showing their homes desecrated by the Russian military, you realize the two families are almost identical. And all these people need help.

It is the reconstruction of housing in the de-occupied territories that the volunteer construction battalion "Dobrobat", whose ranks include 32 thousand Dobrobat members – people who are not indifferent and who have the goal to help their fellow men. "Dobrobat" concentrates on the primary restoration of damaged housing. The primary objective is "fast recovery," that is, rapid restoration: re-shingling of the destroyed roof, repair of broken windows, foundation of damaged walls. And thanks to charitable donations such as Svetlana Vasilievna and Anastasia Vasilievna are quickly restored to their homes. 500,000 UAH will help to fully restore the houses before the first frosts.

This project is a great synergy of art and charity, when the best film directors and producers tell about the grief of people who were under occupation. And we can carve this story into our hearts and help tirelessly to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible by the onset of winter.