Thanks in particular to the amazing fundraising support of local company, Princebuild, and to Susie Hall for her wonderful garden party in Ashton, the Helping Our Ukrainian Friends team was able to make two more deliveries to Ukraine in August and September, our 17th and 18th deliveries, since the invasion began in February 2022.
The first trip was rather different to anything we had done before. Rather than drive out to Poland with donated items from the UK and then on into Ukraine using Polish vehicles, a team of six (including two from Helpston and two from Stamford) flew to Bucharest and picked up three 4×4 vehicles. We had originally planned to buy these in the UK, but discovered that they were much cheaper in Romania. Working with our partners at Sustain Ukraine, we drove them up through Romania on day one of the trip and then on to Kyiv on day two, stopping at Peterborough’s twin city of Vinnytsia on the way.
In Vinnytsia we met with the Deputy Mayor, exchanging flags and gifts, including second hand Chrome books donated by Peterborough City Council. The flag of Peterborough (who knew?) was flying outside the City Hall!
We handed over the 4x4s in Kyiv to separate military units, who will use them for casualty evacuation. We already know that they have been in use inside Russia as part of the Kursk counter-offensive, performing a vital role. As part of this trip, we were also able to deliver a number of generators, purchased through Phil Newby’s fundraising “Jukeboxathon” in July, two of which were immediately in use at a centre for abandoned pets. And we also delivered presents and torches to a kindergarten in Kharkiv.
Susie Hall’s garden party on 31 August raised £7000 for the purchase of more generators, Powerbanks and other products that can help bring light and energy this winter – with much of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure deliberately destroyed by Russia, estimates are that there will only be 20% enough energy this winter. It was a lovely afternoon with afternoon tea, Ukrainian music and a fabulous performance by the Millstone Gritters male choir, as well as magic tricks and beer from Castor Ales.
In late September, another team travelled to Kyiv by plane and train, their credit cards armed with the money raised by Princebuild and Susie. The team, including Helpston’s Neil Hammond, spent over £16,000 on a huge range of supplies, more generators, blankets, food, craft products and toys. These were handed over to our partners at Sustain Ukraine and Cross Charity and to a centre for internal refugee children in Kharkiv. The photos of the team buying 250 kilos of meat for a kitchen that feeds soldiers just behind the front line, are quite something – you can see them on our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/HelpingUkrainesSurgeons/ And look out for the very large saucepan that you need to cook it all in.
The team also visited Vinnytsia again to deliver more Chrome books and spent time with some of the projects we are supporting in Kyiv, Sumy and Kharkiv.
Kyiv is a very beautiful city. But it is under nightly attack, its an eerie feeling to wake up to the sound of air raid sirens, something our friends and partners do every night. They remain defiant, but very weary. The support that our community brings them is hugely important, not just physically through the supplies we donate, but mentally and spiritually too, just by knowing there are people in the wider world still thinking and caring about them.
Our 19th delivery will be to Kyiv again in the first week of December. Again, we will be taking out large quantities of donated items – you can see in the advert what we need and where you can take your donations. And spending money in Kyiv on more generators, food and blankets.
Please do continue to support our work, so we can continue to help.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/helpingourukrainianfriends2023
