This year the big Christmas tree in Kharkiv stands in the metro, underground and safe from attack. The city itself is cheerful enough, with a Christmas metro train and decorations along the roads. And Russian fireworks every night, because the attacks carry on through the holidays too. So we carry on as well, raising budget for vehicles, for medical supplies and for IT. Thank you to everyone who contributed this past year.
At the hacker conference WHY2025 we had the chance to explain why we started Aid to Ukraine and what keeps us going. All talks are recorded, so we can share this one here. Ron and Niels talk about the network, the role of the community in organising the aid, how the foundation came about, and how you can help.
Last month we drove vehicles full of practical goods to Kharkiv. Alongside a solid stock for acute care we brought much requested parts for the vehicles, computers and laptops. The visits are good for the contacts and the network, which keeps the truck transports running smoothly and helps us gather the right things back in the Netherlands. That is what the whole project comes down to: the right things, with the right people. Thanks to everything donors in our network here put in, we manage it regularly, and that is wonderful. Thank you.
The Dutch Angry Nerds Podcast covers our project regularly, for which many thanks. This episode answers an important question: what do you do when you have equipment left over? They explain how donating works (get in touch, for instance at more@aidtoukraine.nl), what you can expect (we are glad to come to you) and what is left for you to do (decide what you want to part with). Office equipment such as laptops, desktops, monitors, servers and network gear is all welcome, and gets a good second life through our contacts in Kharkiv.
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.
HackerHotel 2025 gave us the chance to explain how we help the people of Kharkiv from the Netherlands, and of course to raise funds. The talk by Roman and Niels was recorded and can be watched online. It gives a clear picture of the situation there, of the work during evacuations and after shelling. It puts a face to the news about Ukraine. That does not make it easier to take in, but it does make it more human.
The Dutch healthcare magazine FMT Gezondheidszorg published a fine interview with Ruben Hoogenberg of Almeva and with Ron and Niels. Faced with the commitment of Almeva and all the ambulance stations, modesty suits us. Their help is part of why the medics there can save lives. We regularly get messages from families or from the people themselves: small scale help is warmly welcomed and ends up in the right hands.