Rant of the day ....

start with what the UN does best, if not collecting leaves in autumn, collecting snow in winter...these are the same vehicles that we pictured in autumn with leaves on them....same place, different accumulation. These vehicles should not be here....there are many places they should be in Ukraine, but not here, doing nothing.

And then there are the small organisations working here that survive on a shoestring, a tank full of diesel away from not being able to do what they do best....deliver aid due to funding issues. I want to share with you a message we received from someone who has worked tirelessly  at delivering aid to Ukraine. He has been fighting for months with the Charity Commission to be registered, and has not been able to do so as he has not been able to clear their bureaucratic processes.
The following is just one of the examples of people who are try to help here, and the challenges of continuing to provide aid....

"......This current visit again showed me the urgent need for medical aid for the hospitals,with the numbers arriving each day in the areas we support from the zero position.
The amount of strays also I encountered on my way was heart breaking, I fed the ones I could. 
People living in terrible conditions - so desperate for warm clothes - the snow is still falling and power is out most of the day.
I am so sad to say though that this may be my last trip for a while.... not because I want to - I would be leaving and back out as soon as my boots hit Wales if I could, especially now I have double capacity available to get out there! But me, T and our business are totally tapped out of funds. Our organisation has raised a minimal amount of donations since December that haven't even covered one trip's costs. We will continue our battle with the charity commission which would make it easier to try and claim some grants - our latest reply is they are concerned we seem to be a political organisation looking to arm a foreign army which cannot be covered under a charity number! We are currently responding to that as we aren't any of those things, as you know.
We are desperately looking for ways to raise funds, looking for any potential donors for fuel money rather than aid (without fuel money we cant get the aid there!). ............ The people I have met over the past 11 months have made me even more determined to help, they are resilient, compassionate and all around amazing and deserve so much better. I am not sure how we will face each day if we cannot carry on helping them as the situation here continues to get increasingly difficult and new waves of attacks coming from new directions. My thoughts are with you all going forward..."
 
So that's one... another, our Polish organisation and friends, are also struggling for funds. They, too, are having to curtail some of their work, unable to fix the vans they use to the level that they wish, so that they can continue to do what they do best....purchasing aid that gets delivered right to the front line, to people in desperate need.

Contrast this to some of the organisations we have come across, fully registered with the Charity Commission. One such organisation last year raised £6.1million. £5.1 million was spent in development, whatever that might mean, swish offices in London and directors' salaries. Only £1 million was given out from the monies collected. Contrast that with the organisations we highlighted above. 

OK, so I'm being a bit political with a small p. However, as with so much at the present time, there seems to be one rule for the big players, and another for the ones actually doing most of the work on the ground. It should not be like this.

So back to the day job. Some of it was spent organising our next aid run to Kharkiv, but we have some time to recover and have some peace. It's really chilly here now with temperatures  down to -13°C at night and -3°C during the day. Nevertheless, we took the opportunity to have a walk in our favourite park... Stryiskyi Park. Thermos flask in hand and a packet of biscuits, we spent a wonderful couple of hours, wandering and looking at the beauty of nature

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Third Christmas of the War.

Image
I remember when we first went to Ukraine, we thought we'd better hurry up and get over there to help before the war finished, and there'd be nothing for us to do. How naïve were we? The situation in Ukraine at present has got even worse, especially in the areas in close contact with the Russian forces, although with the constant Shahed and missile attacks nowhere is safe. Kherson has become particularly difficult, and delivering aid there is a direct threat to life. Any vehicle or person can be targeted by Russian small killer drones. This week, a vehicle that is used to deliver aid that we have sometimes used, was attacked and badly damaged beyond repair. Miraculously, the driver, a person I know survived but suffered injuries.  The occupants of a bus were not so fortunate. It was attacked, 3 people died and several more injured. It's really terrifying.  What's really sick is that the Russian's then post o...
Read more

The killing goes on.

Image
Time diminishes things. News cycles bring new, more pressing concerns. But the war here in Ukraine grinds on, with deaths a daily occurrence. The killing seems to have become more incideous and heartless.This weekend in Kherson, delivering aid, under the fairly constant sound of artillery and drone attacks, I heard and saw the inhumanity of this senseless war. There is now a real tangible fear about going out in your car in Kherson. Over the last few months, individual cars have been targeted by Russian drones. These carry small bombs or grenade type munitions. . A car is targeted. An initial bomb dropped. The man realises he's  being targeted and tries to drive away at high speed. He then stops suddenly, hoping to get away. Opens his door to run away, but about two metres away from the car a small bomb explodes. With the door open, nothing seems to happen, then as in slow motion, a man falls from the driver's seat onto the road. Dead. It...
Read more

Krakow to Lviv

Image
We left Krakow at 3am because we had heard that there have been up to 3 hour waits on the Poland-Ukraine border. The balance has changed to more people returning to Ukraine (to the relatively safe western Lviv region) than leaving Ukraine. As it happened, we drove through the fairly haphazard border controls with no hold up. The first thing we noticed on the Ukrainian side were miles (literally) of lorries lining the side of the highway, which was only 2 lanes so made for fairly scary driving. On the Polish side was an equally long line of parked cars, waiting to be sold. We also noticed more potholes on Ukrainian roads than even East Lancashire! The purpose of our visit to Ukraine is 2-fold: firstly, we drove our friend, Romana, home to Lviv (in her car) with her 4-year-old daughter, as she decided against coming to England in order to be with her husband and family. Secondly, w...
Read more