What stays with you are the eyes of the people who need support: Oleksii Bezverkhnii, Chernivtsi

Oleksii is 22 years old and knows firsthand how a single moment can change your life. He was born in Mariupol but, because of the war, was forced to leave his hometown with his family and start over in Chernivtsi.

In 2022, Oleksii joined the Ukrainian Red Cross with a simple but important goal — to help people during one of the most difficult periods in Ukraine’s history. Alongside his work in maritime navigation and vessel operations, he devotes a significant part of his time to volunteering.

For Oleksii’s family, however, helping others has always been more than just volunteering. Even before the full-scale invasion, while they were still living in the Donetsk region, his father, Serhii, volunteered with the Ukrainian Red Cross. Today, he leads the emergency response team in the Chernivtsi region. His mother, Viktoriia, is also a volunteer and regularly takes part in the Ukrainian Red Cross’s Skhid (East) Mission. As a result, helping people has become a shared family value and a way of life.

The experiences that have left the deepest impression on Oleksii are the evacuations. Meeting trains carrying people forced to flee their homes, accompanying evacuees from frontline areas, and seeing fear, uncertainty, and hope in their eyes are moments he says he will never forget.

“What stays with you are the eyes of the people who need support,” he says.

Oleksii believes that even the smallest act of help can change someone’s life. That is why he continues to volunteer and is now preparing to fulfil another personal goal — to join the Skhid (East) Mission and support people where help is needed most.