Hi, I am Alisa. I live in the town of Cheltenham, in South West England, but was born in Kyiv in Ukraine. While I was only a baby when I left Ukraine and spent most of my life here in the UK, the suffering of Ukrainian people comes very close to my heart.

On the 1st of June, I am turning 13. I want to enter my teens by walking up Mount Snowdon in Wales to raise money to spend on humanitarian aid for Ukrainians suffering from the devastations of the war. My parents, Ken and Tanya, are kindly giving me their hand with organising this fundraiser.

On the morning of my birthday, we will set off from Pen-y-Pass to walk all the way up Miners Track to reach the Snowdon summit, before setting off on our way back down.

Why?

Following extensive shelling by russian armed forces, many areas of Ukraine became a place of a humanitarian catastrophe. Numerous towns and villages have had their civilian infrastructure destroyed, ending up being cut off from essential services like electricity, drinking water, heating, and primary healthcare.

Children's hospital in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine:

Hostomel, Kyiv region:

Although humanitarian (and moral!) support in the UK has been tremendous, with people of all ages, abilities, and social status bringing in vast amounts of much-needed essentials and first-aid goods, there still are shortages of more specialised and expensive equipment that you would not normally find in a typical donation pot. Straightforward examples are diesel power generators, water filters, electric heaters, and hospital equipment.

What?

My dream, and the primary goal of this fundraiser, is to buy an ex-NHS ambulance van and send it to one of the bombed Ukrainian towns.

That is quite an ambitious goal, with a price tag for a decent quality ambulance starting at around £8,000. Fully understanding the complexity of reaching that goal, my parents and I have also prepared a shortlist of secondary, more affordable items, should we be unable to raise the amount required for the ambulance. These include such equipment as power generators (£600 each), autonomous water filters (£400-£800), and wheelchairs (£150). Every item on that list will be of good use in the demolished areas by providing much-needed power, clean water, or emergency transportation capabilities.

How?

Once the campaign is over, we will assess the amount that we will have raised and decide on the optimal list of items that we are going to buy and donate. The donations will be of purely humanitarian/medical/life support nature. Our preference is for expensive and less available items that are in high demand in Ukraine, such as ambulance vehicles, medical equipment, water purifiers, etc. (no military or dual-use goods). We will be posting any updates, receipts, and photos further in this listing once they become available.

The purchased items will either be taken to the Polish-Ukrainian border by Alisa's father, Ken, and passed to one of UA AID centers for further delivery to Ukraine destinations, or handed to Prosperity donation hub in Twickenham. This depends on the nature of specific items purchased.

Thank you!

Thank you for your kindness - together, we can make all the difference in the world!

Bonus: one-year-old me in Kyiv:

"Small print"

(Some disclaimers which my parents insist should be here)

As Alisa is too young to manage JustGiving fundraisers, this page is managed by her father, Ken Ivanov.

The pictures of an ambulance van and Snowdon are from Wikipedia (copyright by Vauxford and Chris Dixon, respectively), and are used under the conditions of the CC BY-SA license. The ambulance van is just an example of a vehicle we are looking at; the make and model of the actual vehicle may differ.

The pictures of Chernihiv children's hospital and Hostomel have been borrowed from social media here and here.