What made us go to Ukraine to help instead of donating ?
(1) Donating to a large organization which has its own means and goals is okay, but it’s not the same as being on the ground, adapting in real-time to the problems developing around you.
(2) The bravery demonstrated by ordinary Ukrainians, their willingness to perform functions that their government cannot perform – is a model of civil society that should inspire those of us who are trained to let large institutions operate society for their own purposes.
(3) Ukrainians are grateful for the boots we send them, but it is with some despair that they observe that the boots are empty; Ukrainians must battle one of the world’s largest armies on their own. Seeing our little camper van — the various nationalities we represent — meant a great deal to them, and they never let us forget. Any material aid that we could provide was over-shadowed by the moral support our mere presence provided.
Did we go with an organization or self-organized ?
To provide support that NGOs were not at the time capable of providing. For example, medicine and cold-weather equipment were badly needed, but the long waits at the border were tying up trucks and drivers. Another example was that refugees had driven from the east — some journeys taking five or six days — only to find themselves in border queues 10-30 kilometers long, in sub-zero temperatures. Here there was a need for hot food and drinks that no single organization was able to provide, but it was getting addressed by self-organized volunteers.
What did we do and how did we finance the trip?
We first went thinking, in the worst case, we’d go at our own private expense – in the best, we’d acquire donations to cover the travel costs. We immediately started reporting on instagram and TikTok and were able to acquire lots of donations. The more reported, the more donations came in. We came to realise that people were happy to know and see exactly where the money was going, and were willing to donate more and invite their friends and family to support the cause. With the extra money we started buying supplies that local volunteers told us were urgently needed – mostly humanitarian supplies, but also practical equipment Ukrainians needed to defend themselves. For about 10 days, we were driving between Lviv and some cities at the border in Poland, back and forth. Everytime taking refugees to Poland, shopping in Poland with the received donations, and taking the supplies back to Lviv.
What stayed in our minds
In Poland, we discovered a college that had converted its sports center into a distribution center. Teachers and students worked tirelessly to sort donations and get them on trucks to take them where they were needed. These were Poles, not Ukrainians. The idea that people could just drop their ordinary lives, and work together to address an international problem — how inspiring is that? It makes you wonder what other problems we could solve that way.