All Hands and Hearts

After eight years, the conflict between russia and ukraine saw a major escalation when russia invaded ukraine on february 24, 2022. Thousands have been killed, injured and forced to flee to neighboring countries. One year and a half after the invasion, the war persists and the devastating impacts on ukrainian civilians continue. In 2023 alone, approximately 17.6 million people require humanitarian assistance. The team completed renovations and repairs on seven shelters and one playground, assisting over 1,500 ukrainian families seeking refuge in poland. The shelters include boratyn shelter, hope shelter, spare parts, przemyl shelter, radymo shelter, friends of medyka shelter and the unitatem hq shelter. Through our partnership with the ukrainian charitable foundation save ukraine, we have impacted more than 108,880 ukrainians through lifesaving evacuations, providing critical supplies and improving hub facilities, the first port of call for refugees to access social services during the winter months. We have also built accommodations for 132 families to have safe and warm refuge after being displaced by the crisis, prioritizing vulnerable populations such as expecting or post-partum people, children with disabilities and elderly family members.

On september 7, 2017, one of the most destructive earthquakes in mexico's history hit close to the southern state of chiapas with a devastating magnitude of 8.2. Just 12 days later and a few hundred miles away, a 7.1 magnitude quake rocked central mexico, toppling buildings, breaking gas mains, knocking out electricity and sparking fires across the city and other towns in central mexico. Damage was widespread throughout the central and southern parts of the country. Ahah has worked in oaxaca for the last six programs, where the disaster impacted over 4,000 schools.further compounding the long-term impacts of the earthquakes was hurricane agatha, which struck the central oaxacan coast as a category 2 storm in may 2022. Agatha brought significant storm surges and debris flows to coastal regions before moving inland over the state, where winds, mudslides and water damaged or destroyed more homes and schools.ahah completed its 23, 24, and 25 schools in mexico! The barrio nuevo toltepec schools included a kindergarten, primary, and secondary schools. This was unique work for ahah as they are part of the conafe system in mexico. While the conafe system is adequate for rural communities, the schools' budgets are limited, making rebuilding the 60+ schools in the pochutla area that incurred damage from hurricane agatha a process that will last years. These schools will impact over 60 students and their teachers to give students a safe place to learn and play for years to come.

Hurricane ian started as a tropical depression on september 24, 2022, and underwent a rapid intensification, making its first landfall in cuba as a category 3 hurricane. After intensifying to a category 4 hurricane, it made a second landfall on the west coast of Florida near fort myers on september 28, causing devastating impacts to coastal cities and towns along with catastrophic flooding further inland. Ian's 150 mph winds, storm surge and rainfall caused power outages across the state, damaged infrastructure and overturned cars and boats. After slowly crossing central Florida, the storm exited at daytona beach and made another landfall in south carolina as a category 1 storm.our staff and volunteers continue to respond to recovery needs in fort myers, Florida. Thus far, we have removed debris from 36 homes, removed mud, silt and damaged construction materials (mucking and gutting) from over 113 homes, eradicated dangerous mold from 71 homes and removed hazardous trees from 69 locations. Working alongside sheltering at home for recovery continuation (shrc), our team has completed 11 out of the 16 home repairs needed to get homeowners on the path to recovery.