Over the last year we have been helping Kseniia near Kyiv build an animal shelter. Kseniia began taking in animals at the start of the war in 2022, when many appeared abandoned on the streets as people left Kyiv.

In no time at all she found herself living in a flat with her family and around 20 animals. She then moved to a Kyiv suburb where there was more space to host her animals. Unfortunately the owner of this rented property died not long after and the owner's son would later ask for more rent and seek to sell it.

It was decided that to offer proper security to the animals she cares for, we would help her build an animal shelter. She bought a piece of land with an old house on about 60km from Kyiv where her husband works and her children go to school. Kseniia's prime concern is to make it liveable and secure for the animals, she does not seek luxury and any costs towards the house she will be paying herself.

We have done several rounds of fundraising, initially to build the fence around the property, to get water in (essential for cleaning and watering animals) and we are now on the last stage - which is building outbuildings. The builders have made good progress and the project is nearly finished, but the bill needs to be settled up with them.

We previously labelled the shelter - The Flag Shelter and intend to decorate it with the flags of the donating countries and counties. The target for a county reaches is £100 and for a country - £500. In earlier rounds of fundraising, the UK, Germany, Essex, London and Gloucestershire hit their targets.

The target of £4679 needs to be paid by the end of October and the only way such a large target is achievable is if we break it down, so if everyone does their bit, we will hit the target in no time. Whether it's a £5, £10 or £20 donation, it all makes a difference, make sure your county hits the target and the overall target will be met!

Whether you donate to the regional one or this - the main fundraiser, I will mark it on both to keep tabs on progress. Kseniia currently has 24 dogs and 5 cats but the dogs are not the type that can be rehomed, many of them are old, disabled or have behavioural problems and she is their only hope.

Let's help her to help them!