Run 13 – February 2023

It’s all hands on deck today (30th Jan) as the team have to sort, package and weigh each box – we need to do this for the Ukranian customs forms when we get to the border later this week.

The run is well underway now having started with a non-stop drive through snow in Germany and Poland to a night stop near the border, ready for a very early morning crossing. We were through in just under an hour!

For the first part of the trip, we have the 3 core UK team members on board – Andy had to return early but more of that later! First stop was to our wonderful friend Marina in Bovary to offload the first part of our load. Whilst we were there, we assisted her and the team to load vans for a later trip with aid that came across from our other friends in the UK, Help Ukraine BAMK. We also took the opportunity to visit an orphanage at Vorsel with Marina. Here we met another group from Wicklowaid4Ukraine – Marina had persuaded them to split some of their aid with this orphanage which she supports. Thanks Collette and the team – it was great to meet you!
This orphanage was within the occupied zone during the initial invasion from the North.

With a little down time before Mike & Annie prepared for the next stage, we took a quick trip into Independence Square.

In addition to the memorial flags in the photos above, there is a separate memorial for aid workers. Here’s Mike telling us more about this:

Andy then left us for an overland trip back to the UK via FlixBus & EasyJet – more on how that went in a separate post!

Mike & Annie then went with Marina to Kharkiv and from there, on to Dnipro to deliver gifts to a family there from their mother who is now in the UK, thanks to Ukraine Fundraiser transporting her out last year. There are no words to describe what they saw there:

Then it was back to Brovary for a well deserved rest!

A bit of downtime in Kyiv and a trip to another contact in Irpin, it was time to head to Lviv and the last drop of the trip. Air raid sirens are a fact of life out here now and in addition to the great app they have here, which warns people to head for the shelters, the sirens are broadcast direct to your radio as well:

With the Polish border now behind them, it’s on to Weeze in Germany to plan the next run before returning home.