MYKHAILO YURCHENKO
“I like to do good for others. My main goal now, as a volunteer, is to make sure that people have a place to live,” says Mykhailo Yurchenko, a Dobrobat volunteer.
Before the start of the full-scale war, Mykhailo Yurchenko from Kyiv worked as a manager. His life changed overnight, and now he devotes time and energy to helping the victims. At first, he volunteered in Lviv, where he went when the occupation forces entered the Kyiv region. After returning home, he joined the ranks of Dobrobat, and since May, he has been visiting the sites 2-3 times a week. He says this is also the frontline, and we must keep it up.
For almost six months, Mykhailo has been helping at Dobrobat in every possible way. As part of the Kyiv construction battalion, he cleared rubble and performed urgent reconstruction in Zahaltsy, Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, and Ozery. He helped rebuilt Yahidne with the Chernihiv construction battalion, repairing roofs, installing windows, and doing plastering. Mykhailo had no previous construction experience, but his desire to revive the country and help people motivated him to learn new skills. Today, the man is teaching and training new volunteers.
At Dobrobat, Mykhailo is respected and appreciated for his easygoing nature. You won’t get bored with him. He can always find a good joke to make people around him smile. That’s why he has many friends among the volunteers and cheers them up.
“My life motto is that it is better to laugh hard than cry hard. People already recognize me by my jokes. I always have a smile on my face, and I lead others to do the same,” says the volunteer.
Mykhailo learned about our volunteer movement from his wife, who is now in Germany. He says she is proud of him and is always looking for her husband in the photos of the volunteers who always help others like ants. Such unity inspires Mykhailo, as does the gratitude of the people he helps: it makes him feel good.
“I want people to have at least some happiness. For some people, happiness is a Mercedes; for others, happiness is having a roof over their heads and windows with doors.”
