In 2017, OKKO will collect even more items for the needy: the first 100 tons have already been handed over to volunteers

Anna Tkach

AutoPortal editorial team

2,150 views 2 min read

The OKKO network has already installed 16 containers for collecting used items – at gas stations in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Kharkiv. And caring Ukrainians are increasingly helping to fill them.

If 102 tons of such items were collected during the entire 2016, this year the 100-ton mark was already surpassed in August. This means that even more people who today find themselves in difficult life circumstances will be able to wait out the winter in warmth, dress and shoe their children, and finally feel that they have not been forgotten or left to fend for themselves.

“The initiative to collect used items at gas stations is a simple opportunity for every Ukrainian to show their responsibility and solidarity with those who need more attention and care from society,” says Anna Tikhovska, project manager for sustainable development at the OKKO network. “The collected clothing, shoes, and bedding go to internally displaced persons, the homeless, the elderly, and orphanage residents. We are sincerely grateful to each of our customers who shared a piece of their prosperity.”

The project to collect used items is implemented at the OKKO network together with volunteer organizations that pick up items from containers, sort them, and distribute them among the underprivileged. In Kyiv, this is the public organization “Ukraine Without Borders”; in Lviv, the mutual aid community “Emmaüs-Oselia”; in Odesa, the charitable foundation “Good Samaritan”; in Dnipro, the BF “We Help.” In Kharkiv, where 2 containers were installed in 2017, a partnership was established with the organization “Caritas-Ukraine.” According to volunteer estimates, thousands of people have already used the help within this project, and used items have received a second life and great gratitude from their new owners.

Every visitor to OKKO gas stations can show charity and become a participant in this humane cause. When reviewing your seasonal wardrobe, renovating your apartment, or simply doing a “revision” in your closet, you can always find items that seem unnecessary to you but can still serve someone else for a long time. Just throw them in your car to leave them in a special container at an OKKO gas station at the first opportunity.

Addresses of all 16 OKKO gas stations with installed containers for used items:

• Kyiv, Heroiv Stalinhrada Ave., 1-A

• Kyiv, Dniprovska Naberezhna St., 8

• Kyiv, Brovarskyi Ave., 20-Z

• Kyiv, Lesia Kurbasa Ave., 2-Zh

• Kyiv, Henerala Vatutina Ave., 2-A

• Lviv, Yu. Lypy St., 12

• Lviv, Dzh. Vashynhtona St., 12

• Lviv, Naukova St., 2A

• Lviv, Symona Petliury St., 1

• Odesa, Krasnova St., 3-B

• Odesa, Balkovska St., 115