update 19
it's been a while, but thanks to the generous souls who send regular monthly donations, we're able to keep steadily funding much-needed medical equipment for hospitals in the Kryvih Rih area, as you can see below.
You may have heard of Kryvih Rih in the news recently, as they suffered serious damage and flooding due to the bombing of the Karachun hydraulic dam. This is a picture of a cruise missile taken from the window by our friend Vitali, who continues to volunteer.
On the brighter side, the laryngoscopes and aspirators we bought in Poland arrived!
The approaching winter is a scary prospect, particularly as energy supplies and utilities seem to be targeted, and the last money we sent over will be spent on electric heaters for those in most need.
Thanking you very warmly on behalf of our friends!
update 18
Over the past month or so, as the situation in Ukraine shifts, we've decided, with our Ukrainian friends, to concentrate on getting medical supplies to hospitals in Kryvih Rih and the surroundings. The doctors there send us specific lists of necessary equipment, and we try our best to translate it, source the items in Poland and get them there!
This week it was much more difficult to find things - laryngoscopes were 'going like fresh rolls' as they said in one medical shop I called. Especially those for children. Prices are also rising by the minute.
However, another place gave me a discount -'we have to help each other'- and rather mysteriously wrote an invoice for 'The lady from Ireland'. I sent that invoice on to the Ukrainian friend in Poland who will take the aspirators, laryngoscopes and pressure bandages to the guys who will be driving to Kryvih Rih. He was at work at the time - and before he knew it the boss had offered to pay it.
And so we carry on. I spent the very last penny of your money, and didn't get everything on the list, almost though!
Sending a big wave of gratefulness on to you. Link to donate here
and believe me every single penny helps.
update 17
another update - heartfelt thanks from Larisa Fedorivna, 85 years old, who cried when she received this medicine, and shared a poem she wrote, which i am trying to get translated. sometimes a picture says so much more than words do, though, even poetry. and do you recognise the boxes below? these are the suction machines, which finally arrived at their final destinations, delivered by our friend vitalii to hospitals in kryviyi rih. the staff were incredibly pleased and grateful. and of course, they need more. we've decided to focus on getting medical equipment through now, as there are serious shortages in ukraine (and spreading to the rest of europe too - there are already none of the pressure bandages needed left in lithuania).
it's incredibly heartening to me how money continues to flow, a whole new set of names and figures, even when times are hard for everybody, even when the shock fades and the media moves on, there's a kind of invisible network, a web of strangers coming together into these very concrete actions that will save the lives of other strangers.
It's almost like the way nature works, like a network of roots supplying water and nutrients to plants, like mushroom networks underground, nourishment and information travels wordlessly.
Thank you.
update 16
sarah here - haven't updated for a while, but we're still going! and starting a new blog post here as the other one was getting as long as the war itself.
the situation at the border has changed and there are no longer any immediate cooking needs so we've been focusing on sending money to our friend vitalii in kryviyi rih, ukraine, who volunteers more or less 24/7, getting help to people who need it.
around easter i was in poland and with the help of friends (thank you bozena, thank you agata!) managed to source a large amount of medical supplies and pass them onto some of vitalii's friends from lithuania (pictured above), in an early morning meeting at a service station.
the supplies included much needed suction machines (i heard that staff in a hospital in dnipro cried when they received some of these machines from donors), oxygen canisters, resussitation masks, pressure bandages, bandages specifically for cases of amputation, burn gel, syringes, surgical thread, prescription medications, etc etc. we were following a shopping list from a hospital, just the translation of which caused some confusion - we are now inadvertant experts in different kinds of pressure and trauma bandages. i wish i wasn't.
the guys above spent 4 days on the road getting the supplies to their destination, much of it at a standstill at the border - it's now gone from being impossible to leave ukraine to impossible to get in!
meanwhile, thanks to your money, the normal basic necessities were provided for displaced and probably traumatised people like this family, who were evacuated after horrendous experiences in kharkiv to a village near lviv, in march. vitalii, travelling to meet the goods from lithuania, was able to help.
in related news - we recently had the good problem of hitting the limits of the amount of money we were allowed to send! - all cleared up now and the flow continues. even the smallest amounts are putting food on the table for people in a horrendous situation which just grinds on and on.
here are a couple more thank you photos, and the Paypal link is here.
