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Dog Help Kharkiv has operated since the full-scale invasion in 2022. The team focuses on complex animals and evacuations at the frontlines of this war. Volunteer-powered, the results speak for themselves. We need your support 🇺🇦
1,000+ dogs from war to new homes
We completed the end-to-end process for over a thousand dogs: evacuated from frontlines, sheltered, sterilised, treated, found new homes and delivered to new home.
300+ tons of dog food produced
We produce our own dog food, previously focusing on supply deoccupied areas. Now that we focus on supplying our own shelter and other animal welfare organisations.
We are their last chance.
Everyone has responsibilities at the frontlines — ours is the evacuation of animals that have lost all hope of surviving.
Photo: Co-founder Svitlana Bachurina, in Dvorichna (Now Russian-occupied territory)
Help us rescue animals.
Everyone has responsibilities at the frontlines — ours is the evacuation of animals that have lost all hope of surviving.
Photo: Co-founder Svitlana Bachurina, in Dvorichna (Now Russian-occupied territory)
Photo: Volunteer Noel Tock, in Vovchansk (now completely destroyed)
Donate Today
We urgently need your help
We currently need $18k+/month to operate effectively:
- Shelter (Facilities, food, medicine, utilities, veterniary support)
- Transport (Vehicles, fuel and other travel)
- Equipment (Various dog gear, tools, armour, anti-drone and much more)
- Unplanned (Surgery, special medicine, major repairs and damage)
Donations can be made directly to our Monobank account using various secure and easy payment methods:
On Instagram
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In English 🇬🇧 & Ukrainian 🇺🇦
Our official channel is in Ukrainian which you can follow here at @doghelpkharkivua
About our charity and operations
Our mission is to provide life-saving support to animals affected by the war, particularly those trapped on the dangerous frontlines of Eastern Ukraine. Our work is focused on three critical areas:
- Evacuation: We rescue animals from high-risk areas across the region, bringing them to safety.
- Shelter & Rehoming: We temporarily house and care for animals in our Kharkiv shelter. Our goal is rapid rehoming, and most dogs find a new family in under a month.
- Medical Care: We provide immediate medical attention to all dogs in our care. We have basic veterinary facilities on-site and work with a network of partner clinics to ensure every animal gets the expert treatment they need.
We are one team working towards the same mission. The two names represent the two parts of our international operation:
- Dog Help Kharkiv is our official, on-the-ground charity, registered in Ukraine and verified by the Ministry of Justice. This is the legal entity that carries out all the rescue work in and around Kharkiv.
- NOR DOG is our dedicated fundraising partner, created to build support for our mission, primarily in Norway.
Essentially, NOR DOG helps raise the funds, and Dog Help Kharkiv puts that money to work saving animals in Ukraine.
We operate at the frontlines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The heatmap below highlights our area of operations up to early 2024, this is largely unchanged — with a large focus on the most eastern parts of Ukraine.
Our 42-kennel shelter (outdoors & indoors) is in the south of Kharkiv, hence a concentration of operations in this area of the map.
As a lean, Ukrainian-based organization, we are committed to making every donation go as far as possible. We have no intermediaries, and all funds are spent in Ukraine on direct-action work.
- 100% Mission-Focused: Every expense, from veterinary supplies to fuel for rescues, directly supports our mission of saving animals.
- Lean Operations: Our small, local team receives modest salaries that are benchmarked against other Ukrainian non-profits. This allows us to keep our overhead exceptionally low and maximize the funds going directly to animal care.
As a legally registered Ukrainian charity, we are required by national banking regulations to process all donations in our local currency, the Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH). This is a standard measure to help ensure the stability of our national economy.
Your bank or credit card provider will automatically handle the currency conversion for you. For example, a donation of ₴4200 UAH is approximately $100 USD.
Absolutely. We believe in full transparency and are happy to provide a receipt for your generous support.
While our small organization is not yet equipped with a fully automated system, we can manually issue a formal receipt for any donation of $100 USD or more. To request one, simply email our team at hello at dog-help-kharkiv.org with the details of your contribution.
Financial donations give us the most flexibility to respond to urgent needs, but specific supplies can also be a great help. We are occasionally able to accept large, coordinated shipments of:
- Specific veterinary medicines
- Soft dog transport boxes (crates)
- Pallets of high-quality dog food
Due to the complexities of international shipping to a conflict zone, please contact us at hello at dog-help-kharkiv.org before sending any items.
The easiest way to help for free is to follow us on social media and share our stories. It helps us reach more supporters and costs you nothing!
Dog Help Kharkiv UA (in cooperation with NOR DOG) is the official project of the Charitable Organisation “Rays of Light and Hope”. All donations are processed by this registered non-profit entity. This organisation exists solely to support our rescue and humanitarian work in Ukraine — All donations go directly to our animal rescue and relief operations.
Address:
Rays of Light and Hope
Official Registration (EDRPOU): 44691061
Registered Address: Saltivske Shose 159/84, Apt. 49, Kharkiv, 61111, Ukraine
Contact: +38(097)-337-78-98
Verfied Charity Information:
Non-Profit Registration | Financial Report | Tax Statement
Terms of Service
Video in header put together with footage from Anya Korzun & Noel Tock.