Taras and Maryana put out a call on Facebook. Yurko Vovkohon and Oleksandra Sorokopud, manager of strategic development and international partnerships at YMCA Lviv, came across Taras's post and agreed to back the initiative at once: she loved sailing herself and understood well the rehabilitative effect such a voyage could have. The Lviv Regional State Administration joined the funding too, and its representatives came along as volunteers. They supported the titans across all seven days, taking on the ocean winds and the dozens of miles between the islands together with them. This is how the project's model of working with volunteers was born: not observers on the sidelines, but equal members of the crew.
Another important source of support was the Ukrainian diaspora living on Tenerife. After seven days in the ocean, everyone who wanted to was waiting on shore to welcome the titans, to hear their stories, to thank them for defending Ukraine and to stand with them even thousands of kilometres from home. A meeting with the local diaspora is now one of the core parts of the programme on every rehabilitation sailing voyage. Mutual support is one of the elements of recovery that Ukrainians need, wherever they may be.
Over the course of this first voyage, through a series of well-timed encounters, the team came together that would go on to found the NGO Titans Under Sails: Maryana Tregub, Taras Opyr, Oleksandra Sorokopud, Yurko Vovkohon and Iryna Puryk. Iryna joined as the trip was drawing to a close, having carried the idea of sailing trips with veterans for several years, and she stepped in straight away to grow the project through digital technology. You can read more about the team, and how it continues to grow, on our Our Team page.
