Twenty-year-old Yurii Huzenko is in the prime of his life. You can find him exploring restaurants run by talented Ukrainian chefs, stopping by hip coffee shops or the new "Respublika Park" shopping mall with its Brazlian-style supermarket.
With future plans in his pocket, his creative spirit has driven him to save up for a guitar, learn English and later take singing lessons to show the world his potential. And although his life has flipped upside down on 24 February, Yurii is determined that giving up is not an option for him.
"War will not destroy my youth and inspiration to live. In 10 years I will live among Ukrainians, free and sincere, who appreciate their culture, and admire the beauty of their country”
“I realized when I was having breakfast. This day, February 24th was supposed to be a usual working day for me as a courier but, when I left my place, there were a lot of cars driving in the opposite direction, everyone was in a hurry and running away in a panic”
On this day, Yurii drove around the city all day, visiting the places where he usually made his deliveries and it was this night when he and a friend, around the Podil neighbourhood, heard a loud siren for the first time.
“We didn’t understand the scale of what was happening in our country and we just came back home at 11 pm. Everything had changed”
Yurii 's family, his mother, stepfather, and grandmother, is in a safe place now. “We call each other regularly and I support them financially. My plans are to stay in Kyiv, this is my city”. He confesses that despite living in a city whose city center has so far been spared from direct attacks, the anxiety can be felt in the streets of Kyiv these days. Yurii spends quite a lot of time in his rented apartment“
It’s an important job for the development of society and now it has become even more meaningful because there are many who need help. Grandmothers, grandfathers, children, the disabled, and even animals are in trouble finding food because of the war”, says Yurii Huzenko.
Yurii recognizes the great help Glovo employees from the local office and the couriers themselves are offering to keep up the day-to-day life
“Despite the situation, Kyiv is not standing still, and people are gradually reopening their businesses to earn money to help those in need”
And it is because of that, helping those in need, that Yurii combines his courier role with volunteering.
“From time to time I help to deliver essentials to strangers at my own expense. In Kyiv, the food supply is slowly coming back to normal but there is still a problem with medicines or animal food”
He remembers the last time he helped an elder woman “I’ve probably never heard so much gratitude. These things bring us together. Whenever possible we should give and show what we are capable of because we are people”.
Yurii, Sergey, Serhij, Bogdan & Oleksiy are five out of many couriers in Ukraine who, on a daily basis, bring hope to those who open the doors of their homes or wait for them in metro stations to get their medicines. Today we get to know them a little closer, in their most personal side, like the city eyes that never stop looking.
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