A woman from Abernethy in Scotland is on her way to Ukraine where she plans to be delivering soup to the elderly and disabled this winter.
Thirty-one-year-old Martha Aitken, an ex-pupil of Perth High School, already put her life on the line driving a van in repeated evacuation efforts over the summer, taking vulnerable people out of the Russian-occupied zone north-east of Kharkiv to safe areas.
On a first stint to the conflict zone in April, she helped evacuate families from acute danger and was helping supply aid to refugee centres throughout the country.
She’s now gone back as a self-funded volunteer to begin ‘Project Soups’.
Accompanying her is Ukrainian Polina Pomitii (28) from Zaporizhzhia who has been staying near Aberdeen for the last four months. Polina wants to go back to her country to check on her grandparents.
Martha and Polina will work with Ukrainian women, creating modest employment by asking local people to make large quantities of soup and hearty stews which will then get distributed.
Martha explained the project: “Five days per week we will make 110 litres of soup per day to feed approximately 220 people.
“In order to give the women (most men are conscripted or essential workers) employment, we will offer them a modest stipend which they can use to buy essential items they need to live their daily lives.”
Martha will start regularly visiting people, many without power or electricity, who can no longer feed themselves. The plan is to deliver the hot meals on regular, reliable rounds of villages, braving a winter in the Kharkiv area where bomb damage is widespread and power lines likely to go down.
Her second Ukraine mission is well organised: “The vehicle is good to go. We have some really good donations of high quality power banks and proper winter jackets and we have survival shoe boxes ready for the New Year present-giving plan.”
Martha, one of five adult children in a family from Abernethy in Perthshire had no prior connection with Ukraine before a friend asked her if she would help with an aid delivery to the Polish border town of Medyka.
Following this she volunteered to drive into Russian-occupied Kharkiv and to fill vehicles with people desperate to get out.
“I didn’t tell my mum Joanna much about what I was up to so as to save her worrying,” admitted Martha. “Eventually I needed to talk to a newspaper to raise awareness, so the truth came out then.
“My mum got to know the whole story: how we had come under constant shelling and bombardment as we got people evacuated. She has been really supportive and I’m pleased to let her know this next period of time I’m going to spend in Ukraine is likely to be way less dangerous.
“We won’t be near the frontline. Yes the risks are there but nothing like I faced previously.”
Martha felt free to go and assist in Ukraine as she worked freelance, sailing boats.
“I was between contracts, I was able to drop everything and go.
“It’s not as though I had children. If I did, it would have probably stopped me getting involved in such a direct way, but I was free to take off and help evacuate people.”
She worked with others in a group which organised a ‘green card’ every Monday allowing Martha and other volunteers to drive into Russian occupied territory north-east of Kharkiv.
Speaking to the PA, Martha confided: “There were moments when I’d look into people’s eyes, particularly the old folk, many who could barely walk, and you just have to stifle a cry in yourself and be strong.
“This time last year, I would never have imagined what I’d be doing now, going out to Ukraine twice. It was not my idea to go out the first time, I was nudged by a friend.
“But now I know the reality of the suffering. The children’s faces say it all. It’s truly heart-breaking.”
With the evacuation volunteers, Martha ran a mobile play and learning facility for the kids in the previously occupied areas.
“We’d drive our van around and, working with community groups, teachers and psychologists play outdoor games and do arts and crafts activities with the kids.”
Last Friday, Martha set out from Perthshire in a second hand 4x4. The vehicle needed considerable welding, brake and chassis work before it was fit to go which “incredibly” was done free of charge by Barhaul Ltd in Aberfeldy.
And Perthshire people have rallied round to help her raise funds for Project Soups.
Community members in Martha’s home village of Abernethy and nearby Newburgh have heard Martha speak about her experiences and her plans for this next mission to Ukraine.
“One chap, Paul Duncan, has been my right-hand-man,” said Martha. “He’s been amazing organising stuff as well as giving generously.
“And in Aberfeldy, Barhaul came to my rescue when I told them the 4x4 I’d bought to handle the rough roads in Ukraine over winter needed a ton of welding. They had the vehicle in their yard and a very kind person fixed it up for nothing when to avoid it going for scrap, the essential welding was going to cost around £1500.”
On her appeal site https://www.gofundme.com/f/project-soups-ukraine Martha has clawed in £7317 of a £15,000 target, enough to launch the set up of her soup idea.
“Project Soups will provide warm, nourishing meals to people most in need. We will visit small remote villages and underground bunkers in places where groups are sheltering from missiles or have been forced to stay there because their homes are destroyed.
“We will employ local people to make soups and stews to their own traditional recipes, empowering them and giving them back a sense of purpose. We’ll then deliver these hot meals to other villages so that everyone can be assured of at least one hot meal several times a week.
“Morale is incredibly low and even the small act of making a pot of soup twice a week or eating a hot meal twice a week can really have a huge positive impact.
“Our own personal costs such as food and accommodation come out of our own pockets so everything we raise from donations goes straight to those in need.”
Martha needs the money to initially finance three full months of soup aid over the bitter Ukrainian winter.
“We estimate the initial phase of the project will cost around £7000 which will provide 13,200 warm, nutritious meals. But that’s not all – it will also create 13,200 smiles and 13,200 feelings of hope,” she explained.
“I’m officially affiliated with two Ukrainian charities as a volunteer: The Renaissance Foundation and ETOC, a foundation which organises emergency evacuations in Kharkiv.
“Our mission is to alleviate the distress, trauma and hardships faced by people who live close to the Russian border and whose lives have been totally shattered since Russian forces invaded their peaceful lives and occupied their homes, schools and hospitals, destroying them as they left.
“The winter in Ukraine will be bitterly harsh. The temperature can drop to minus twenty degrees and many people will be in extreme poverty, freezing and starving. We want to do our bit to take a little bit of that struggle away.”
Martha was recently “very honoured” to be given the award of ‘Scotland’s Champion’ at an event in Glasgow on the back of the evacuation work.
Project Soups is her new reason for returning to Ukraine.
“I was struck by the seeming randomness of some aid handouts,” Martha explained.
“It was sporadic, some got three visits then nothing.
“With this, I aim to be part of a wider team that can offer regular, reliable meals. It will take away one big worry, the question of ‘when will it come and how long will it last?’
“The soup and stew, two hot meals a week, works out at 50p a meal. After £700 in equipment set up cost, production costs are worked out to be £575 per week.
“If people support my appeal, I will hopefully to be covered for three months, through the toughest winter months when people need most.
“Winter temperatures are regularly minus 10 degrees C in Ukraine and in these previously Russian-occupied areas, people are largely without food, water or bedding. Without help, they will freeze or starve.”
