90 shipments of aid to Ukraine
Dear members of Ad Pacem,
This newsletter gives an overview of our aid to the victims in Ukraine of the Russian military aggression which, since 22 February 2022, has put the east and south of the country (20% of Ukrainian territory) to fire and blood.
In the first few weeks, we were inundated with spontaneous aid from members and neighbours who were sending supplies (medicines, clothes, blankets, linen, etc.) that Ukrainians, fleeing with their children in the face of the advancing barbarism, might need. In April and May 2022, refugees arrived on our doorstep and we tried to accommodate them.
Many of the donations we received throughout 2022 paid for all our shipments to the hospitals in Stryj, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Vorzel (psychiatric clinic for traumatised civilians and soldiers) and to the internal refugee centres in Dnipro, Pidgorodne, Berezhane and Chernovitz in Ukraine. Some of this money was sent directly by Western Union to trusted development workers who bought equipment, medicines and food on the spot.
Some of the donations were used to fund emergency operations for injured civilians and refugees who could not pay for them themselves.
From the outset, our approach has been to be transparent, with photos of our aid taken when it was sent and when it was received. For each item of aid, you will find on the website the date, the place where it was sent and received, the content of the aid sent and, in most cases, the people who were helped and/or who received it. This is also the case when money has been sent: the photos document the purchases made and distributed to those in need.
To date, ninety items have been sent to Ukraine.
See the direct link: Russia’s war against Ukraine
All the proceeds from the sale of the Ad Pacem 2023 calendar have been used to fund a field hospital that a dozen doctors decided to set up behind the Ukrainian front lines. It enables them to intervene quickly with seriously injured soldiers. We bought them sleeping bags, inflatable mattresses, bullet-proof waistcoats, medical equipment, medicines, dressings, etc.
A doctor and a nurse from this team wrote to us saying that they had been wounded by Russian bullets when they went out to recover wounded soldiers. From their hospitals Oleg (December 2023) and Oleksander (January 2024) texted us that it was thanks to the bullet-proof waistcoats we had bought them that their lives were saved. A ray of light in this horrible war!
I would like to thank all our members who, through their subscriptions and donations, are making it possible to help the victims of the war in Ukraine.
Special thanks go to our vice-president Natalya Pantaleoni, who organises all this aid.
Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman