Our Desire to Help
We are volunteers from the Czech Republic who have been helping grandmothers in eastern Ukraine for 9 years (since 2015).
The frontline grannies are close to our hearts. They don’t complain and face destiny with tremendous inner strength. It’s precisely these extraordinary heroines who inspire us to eagerly organize assistance in the form of both material and emotional warmth.
We primarily assist in remote areas where no one typically reaches. We provide employment to locals and purchase from them at minimal costs.
Michal „Kody“ Kislicki
I founded the non-profit organization Desire to Help (“Chuť pomáhat”) during my volunteer work in eastern Ukraine. I started as an ordinary volunteer in 2014, helping to repair a bullet-ridden orphanage and distributing bread to people caught in the conflict zone. Thanks to the kindness of people willing to donate to this cause, I realized that besides personal involvement, I contribute the most by organizing the desire to help.
Today, besides providing warmth to grandmothers, I strive to simplify the donation process and deliver as many positive updates from the project and heartfelt messages from the grandmothers to the donors, spreading joy on both sides.
The Ukrainian Team
During 9 years of assisting people on the front lines of the war in eastern Ukraine, I’ve encountered dozens of local volunteers – true-hearted people. Like me, they left their homes to live directly on the front lines and be needed by someone’s side every day. This isn’t just a job but a full-fledged calling. To risk one’s life daily and share in the grandmothers’ heavy burdens, to search for and organize at least a spark of positivity where it often seems pointless. We know it matters.
In 2022, Mikhail, known as “Bard,” took over the leadership of the Ukrainian team. Originally a video maker with a healthy fear of war, he found the courage to actively travel through the front line and, during breaks in the shelling, seek out abandoned grandmothers.
Empathetically, he listens to their life stories, skillfully organizes deliveries of briquettes, and never forgets biscuits for tea or their favourite chocolate treats. Simply put, he’s a cool guy (with a heart) in the right place.
Numbers that scream “Joy”
years helping in Ukraine
grandmothers saved from the cold
donors changing the world for the better
Our
Desire to Help
We are volunteers from the Czech Republic who have been helping grandmothers in eastern Ukraine for 9 years (since 2015).
The frontline grannies are close to our hearts. They don’t complain and face destiny with tremendous inner strength. It’s precisely these extraordinary heroines who inspire us to eagerly organize assistance in the form of both material and emotional warmth.
We primarily assist in remote areas where no one typically reaches. We provide employment to locals and purchase from them at minimal costs.
Michal „Kody“ Kislicki
I founded the non-profit organization Desire to Help (“Chuť pomáhat”) during my volunteer work in eastern Ukraine. I started as an ordinary volunteer in 2014, helping to repair a bullet-ridden orphanage and distributing bread to people caught in the conflict zone. Thanks to the kindness of people willing to donate to this cause, I realized that besides personal involvement, I contribute the most by organizing the desire to help.
Today, besides providing warmth to grandmothers, I strive to simplify the donation process and deliver as many positive updates from the project and heartfelt messages from the grandmothers to the donors, spreading joy on both sides.
The Ukrainian Team
During 9 years of assisting people on the front lines of the war in eastern Ukraine, I’ve encountered dozens of local volunteers – true-hearted people. Like me, they left their homes to live directly on the front lines and be needed by someone’s side every day. This isn’t just a job but a full-fledged calling. To risk one’s life daily and share in the grandmothers’ heavy burdens, to search for and organize at least a spark of positivity where it often seems pointless. We know it matters.
In 2022, Mikhail, known as “Bard,” took over the leadership of the Ukrainian team. Originally a video maker with a healthy fear of war, he found the courage to actively travel through the front line and, during breaks in the shelling, seek out abandoned grandmothers.
Empathetically, he listens to their life stories, skillfully organizes deliveries of briquettes, and never forgets biscuits for tea or their favourite chocolate treats. Simply put, he’s a cool guy (with a heart) in the right place.
The story of a non-profit
that decided to do things differently
Příběh neziskovky,
která na to jde jinak
How it all started: First time on the front line
Michal Kislicki, an electrician from Brno (Czechia), sets out as a complete rookie to help civilians caught up in the emerging war for eastern Ukraine. He finds his life’s mission in helping elderly ladies and children living in the combat zone.
He joined the Ukrainian volunteers at the front, distributing bread in the shelled city of Vuhlehirsk. The helplessness of abandoned children, the elderly and the sick who cannot escape has motivated him to keep helping ever since.
Blog, talks and the first donors and projects
Encouraged by his Czech friends, Michal started to write a Facebook blog about his experiences of frontline evacuations and delivering food to the needy. Several cities across the Czech Republic invited him to give talks there. At the first talk, an unknown donor pressed a five hundred crown bill (about 20 pounds) into Michal’s hand and said: “You’re going back there, aren’t you? Here is something to help those people with.” More like-minded donors joined in at the following talks. Michal realised that besides the help he is able to provide by himself, he could also engage all the good people in the Czech Republic and deliver their aid to those affected by war who need it most.
After returning to Donbas, he came up with the idea and organised the first summer Safety Camps for 60 frontline children, where the kids had a chance to take a break from the war for at least a few days. In the winter, the Heating for Grannies project followed with the aim to provide wood and stoves to about 100 grandmothers living in the frontline area so that they would not freeze to death in their half-ruined houses and temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius.
One wedding and many years of work
Michal found not only his life’s mission in Ukraine, but also his love. After their wedding, Michal and his wife decided to give everything they could and devote themselves to helping people on the front line. They settled 50 km from the front in Sloviansk, where their son was born.
Michal travels to the Czech Republic to give talks and encourage people to get involved in helping those in need. The fan base of Desire to Help is growing, as are the opportunities for new projects in eastern Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine shifted to the trenches, its end nowhere in sight. Michal leads a small team of 4 local volunteers. They work on improving the organisation of the Safety Camps and the Heating for Grannies project.
Growing team and professionalism
The teams and the projects have grown significantly in the five years on the front line and so has their level of professionalism. We have refined our processes to seek out and assist those most in need on the front line efficiently and as much as we can. This allows us to help more grandmothers and children in more than a dozen frontline towns each year (200-250 children at the camps and 200-250 grandmothers secured for the winter).
Recap and journey to Czechia
Michal is confident of the Ukrainian team’s skills and sees that such devoted workers can easily be managed remotely. Michal returned to the Czech Republic after seven years spent working at the front, for the sake of his wife and their 4-year-old son. The Heating for Grannies project and the Safe Camps celebrated six successful years!
The war, new leadership and restored vigour
At the end of February, the war spread to the whole of Ukraine, and after fierce fighting, the war is shifting to the trenches again, especially in Donbas. The Ukrainian team is making good use of its know-how of previous years – mainly in evacuation from shelled cities in eastern Ukraine inland and in distribution of food parcels directly on the frontline.
We managed to hold a Safety Camp for almost 300 frontline children, who enjoyed a programme prepared in cooperation with psychologists that was full of water games in swimming pools, which helped them to wash away at least part of the trauma caused by the frantic evacuation from the front.
When Less is More
After a successful winter in 2022/23 (keeping 512 grandmothers warm), the team reached a tough decision. After 8 years, they’re ending their activities with “Tábory Bezpečí” (Safe Camps). They will now focus year-round on the frontline Grandmothers. Why? Since 2015, they’ve organized two main projects for those in need in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine. In winter, they warmed grandmothers; in summer, they brought joy to children at camps (a total of 1500 children!). Both projects had their purpose, but last winter, the team fully realized a simple wisdom – do one thing, but do it properly.
Operating in a relatively small team (up to 10 people in Ukraine and the Czech Republic), switching between two completely different projects twice a year became increasingly challenging. They couldn’t properly develop either project, and last winter, the team was convinced that the frontline grandmothers need us the most. We feel it’s necessary to support these fragile heroines year-round. In summer with food packages; in winter with fuel; and year-round with the attention they lack the most in the conflict zone.