Back safely
Through Aid to Ukraine another van, loaded with trauma care supplies and IT equipment, has been delivered in Kharkiv. The volunteers who took it over are back safely as well.

For the safety of our volunteers and of the people we work with, we never say exactly what we are bringing, when we go, who goes or how we travel. We stay careful afterwards too. But this van, relief supplies included, arrived safely in Kharkiv. The volunteers are back safely. They drove out in the van, three days to Kharkiv. They came back by train the whole way, this time via Vienna on the night train to Amsterdam.

Several cars are going soon. We may tell you more about that afterwards.

Even after years of war, people keep supporting Ukraine. The first car following the appeal we made last week is already going over in the coming weeks. A petrol estate of German solidity. With many thanks to the donor. More is of course welcome.

Do you still have an old car, computers or anything else standing around? Do let us know.

Old cars, and more, are always welcome
Your diesel is no longer allowed into the low-emission zone. Or your petrol car is just that bit too old and the trade-in value disappoints. A car that has reached the end of its life here can start a new one in Ukraine. There is no low-emission zone there, and a car written off here becomes a way to deliver food, evacuate people or drive someone to a hospital. We have the luxury of discarding a car because the rules changed. Over there, anything that drives gets used. A car no longer welcome in our city centres runs there over poor roads to villages that no longer have any public transport.

We are glad another truck of genuinely useful IT equipment can go to Ukraine. Thanks to the donors who think of us when they rotate their laptops, fit out a new server room or replace the wifi, there are again countless Ukrainian organisations that can restore or improve their communications.

Where we still debate whether to run our own IT, in Ukraine that is not a question. If you cannot do it yourself, you are also unable to improvise or solve problems. These goods have arrived and have already been distributed. We are working on the next load.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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