Thanks to generous donors and the unfailing help of Almeva B.V., we were able to meet a request from trauma surgeons with pallets of medical supplies. They asked for transfusion sets, pressure bandages, tourniquets and haemostatic gauze: practical things for trauma care. Because of Almeva we ship material of the same quality the ambulance services in the Netherlands use. That way the donations we receive turn into the best possible help for the people there.
Kharkiv is alive, thanks to its people and in spite of the war. Last month we visited the city to bring vehicles and relief supplies. The human side of the work is perhaps what we add most. The coffee is still better than ours, but in the favourite coffee place there is a bag of tourniquets and pressure bandages on the wall where a defibrillator would hang in the Netherlands. People are holding on. They want to, and they have no other choice.
Just before Christmas we gratefully received word that Stichting Aid to Ukraine has been granted ANBI status, the Dutch designation for a public benefit organisation. It lets donors and the foundation itself make use of several tax advantages when giving and receiving gifts. The government chips in, so to speak, and that is very welcome indeed. The RSIN number you need for your tax return is 866916556.
One of the volunteer groups is building a new vehicle for transporting the wounded, in practice a van pressed into service as an ambulance. It is done simply, but by people who know what they are doing. Through Almeva we arranged a good stock of consumables: tourniquets, infusion sets, intraosseous drills and gauze.
This Land Rover Discovery has been checked over by the mechanics at Bas4Cars and we are taking it to Kharkiv loaded with supplies. Alongside the vehicle we are bringing a fresh stock of trauma supplies and practical items such as generators and IT equipment.