Being creative...

We've had a very busy day. This morning our first visa applications in Lviv were completed. We matched the family (mother and 4 year old son) here with the sponsor family in Trawden, and MAD (Make a Difference) did the visa applications, using the new App, which seems to be speeding up the process.

We then drove a generous load of humanitarian AID, via MAD, to the library distribution centre that transports it across Ukraine, where needed. We kept back certain items and took them to our apartment, for gradual distribution to the refugee centres where we'll be working.

We think we'll be mostly based at the refugee centre in the park that we visited yesterday. We're calling it the Stryinskyi Park centre. Here, we met the director, a university lecturer, who explained that the centre is based within the sports department of Lviv University. He took us around various sports halls, some with basketball nets still in place, that can only be described as camps of 50 or so people, some who have put up sheets around their own little sleeping area. Outside are the 'pods' that each hold a family. Altogether, about 600 people can be housed.

We felt that the conditions in this refugee centre were worse than those in Krakow, mainly because there is no fresh food cooked, just World Central Kitchen (WCK) deliveries of lunches and suppers in boxes. We're not sure what's in the boxes, but it's not the freshly cooked meat and vegetables, and hearty soups that we've been used to. And, because there is no food tent, there is no opportunity for sitting around and socialising.

We're hoping that we can change this, and so our last stop was the WCK base outside the central railway station. It's hard to see from the photos, but they have a very rudimentary way of cooking fresh food - soup heated in giant cauldrons over a wood fire and water heated in an ancient boiler (pictured). Traditional compote - dried fruit and sugar boiled in water - is made in huge quantities (also pictured). All under a makeshift canvas shelter.

The point is that good fresh food can be provided with some creativity and not a lot of equipment. So we got two contacts - of the manager and director of WCK in Lviv - and will try to discuss whether it would be feasible to have a hot food station, eg a gas-fired grill to cook sausages to begin with. 

We'll be taking a suitcase of toys with us to Stryinskyi Park centre tomorrow on the number 53 bus!!!

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