Volunteer Appreciation Day on Stanford Campus
Since its origin, TeleHelp Ukraine has been an organization spanning across institutions, time zones, and languages. As such, most of the work of our volunteers takes place over endless and countless zoom screens, email chains, Discord channels, Telegram groups, and almost every other means of distant communication. Throughout the last year, we have found each other through our social and professional networks, all driven and united by the mission to provide and coordinate free quality mental health and medical support to Ukrainians.
This January, however, 11 months into the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine - and almost as long into the life of our organization - we made an effort to get together in person on Stanford campus, the birthplace of TeleHelp Ukraine. We finally got to put faces to the names of so many of our brilliant clinicians, volunteers, engineers, designers, and many others. We’re so grateful to all those who could make it to the Bay Area, California, and missed those who couldn’t. Here are some of the highlights from the event!
Some of the delicious Ukrainian favorites, catered by the community members in the Bay Area.
The big package of salt was produced in the town of Soledar, Bakhmut Raion of Donetsk Oblast. The name in Ukrainian means “the gift of salt”. The town was occupied by the Russian troops just over a week before this gathering.
TeleHelp Ukraine connects clinicians from all around the world to Ukrainians in need. Here, our co-founder Sol Savchuk is joined by one of our exceptional neurologist, Dr. Rui Guan, who currently practices in Australia! We were glad to have her and her family join us for our gathering!
No picture is as memorable as one you can slide right into your wallet! During the event, attendees took lots of polaroid photographs together, which they could take home, but some are displayed on this polaroid wall. Lots of blue and yellow, as expected!
In another fun group activity, we asked volunteers to use this map to pin and connect the most important places on their life path, such as where they lived, worked, or studied.
Here the team is hard at work completing a jigsaw puzzle memorializing the famous line delivered by a Ukrainian soldier to a Russian warship approaching Snake Island. The puzzle was made in Kyiv, and can be purchased here. (Image digitized from a polaroid – note the retro look)
Many thanks to the Bechtel International Center at Stanford for their help hosting the event!
