March 2022

21st March 2022
We filled our car as much as we could and travelled more than 1,800 km. We crossed the borders of France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany before reaching our final destination of Chelm in Poland.

We gave some of your donations to a women & Children refugee centre. It was incredibly humbling. They were so grateful and appreciative of the support. But they are the one’s who have lost everything. Russia has no morals, no respect for innocent lives.

But the kindness of normal people carries them forward and gives them hope. We received a certificate to thank us for our help. But this does not belong to us, we just delivered the aid. It is all of you who gave that deserve the acknowledgement.

26th March 2022
Many of our friends who have visited Ukraine would know Ira. She was the receptionist at the dentist where we have taken so many of our friends. Ira lived in a town called Borodianka. I say lived, as this town no longer exists. Russia destroyed it. We met Ira in Krackow Poland. This is her story!

Borodianka was a peaceful town in Ukraine, nothing there but ordinary people living ordinary lives. For no reason other than pure evil, Russia destroyed everything that was there. When the rockets and shells started falling, Ira, her mother, son and sister took shelter in a cellar in a neighbours building. For 6 days they stayed there, too scared to venture out. They could hear Russian tanks passing by, innocent people being murdered. Baby’s and children killed by immoral Russians just because they were Ukrainian.

They had a little food and water. But it was so cold the water froze, and they began to suffer from dehydration. Somehow, they survived and eventually felt it was safe to leave. This was just the beginning.

Everything was destroyed, their home, their town their lives. They could hear people buried under rubble but were unable to help them. Eventually their cries for help stopped, stopped forever. Children, women, ordinary good people dead. Traumatized and afraid they somehow made their way to Poland.

Now with no money, food or belongings there was little hope. Only for the kindness of some Polish people are they given some help. The son, Zhenya, was so dehydrated that he had to be hospitalized. He pulled through. Now they drift with nowhere to call home. The family has been in 5 different places of accommodation since arriving in Poland 3 weeks ago. They are getting no financial support. They lived on bread and the cheapest food they could get.

Niyole and I helped as much as we could. We took them to a restaurant and bought some food from the supermarket. After all, these are our friends and Ira had always helped us when we were in Ukraine, We love her & her family. All they want is to go home, but there is no home to go back to. The comfortable life they once had has been taken away, Russia is responsible for this. In the meantime, Ukrainians like Ira and her family are just trying to survive.