“My eleven-year-old son Bennet opened his closet and picked out a lot of things that he would like to donate to Ukraine. He also gave me his pocket money.” This is what Svenja Saager, a 44-year-old pharmacist from Rissen, tells us. “Isn’t that touching?”.
Jan Christiansen (61), management consultant from Sülldorf, bursts into tears when we ask him why he is making his labor available. “Because I feel so helpless and it’s good to be able to do something for the people of Ukraine.”
We’re in cracks, on the edge of the hospital. The foreign aid of the Hamburger Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) has its logistics center there. All the goods that are needed when people are in need anywhere in the world are stored in a hall. A truck is currently being packed for Ukraine. On Saturday, the truck starts with around 20 tons of relief supplies towards the Polish-Ukrainian border.
On Saturday I set the first Hamburg truck in motion towards Ukraine
Loading it – the ASB with its team of volunteers can’t do that alone. Further support is needed for this. That’s why project manager Rene Graussau – in normal life a self-employed IT service provider – drummed up volunteers with the help of social media. Grassau himself can hardly believe the success: Dozens of Hamburgers, with whom the ASB has never had anything to do and who heard regarding the call for help on Facebook, are suddenly on the spot and lend a hand. Svenja Saager and Jan Christiansen are two of them. Citizens who want to express their solidarity with Ukraine.
It’s like an anthill. Some of the helpers sort the relief supplies in the warehouse. Others carry them to the truck. Still others pack the loading area full. Hospital beds, water canisters, groceries, kitchen rolls, toilet paper, fire brigade equipment are going on the trip to the Ukraine… All things that the people of Ukraine will urgently need in the next few days, in the next few weeks.
It is the first truck that ASB is sending to Ukraine. There will be many more to come. ASB cannot do this with its own vehicles alone. “We are grateful that freight forwarders keep contacting us and offer to take the goods with them,” says Rais Kabanov (52), full-time employee of ASB foreign aid. “A freight forwarder just called and even made several trucks and drivers available to us. That’s great, of course.”
Here you can find out how you can donate and what happens with your donation
Now the ASB turns to the population and asks for donations. Everything is needed. Above all: thermal underwear, blankets, hygiene items, children’s clothing. “If someone has leftover groceries, then of course we’re happy to take them,” says Kabanov. However, he would like to prevent citizens from going to the nearest supermarket, shopping for 50 or 100 euros and bringing the products to the ASB. “In this case, our request is: rather donate us the money directly, then it can be used in a targeted manner – to buy a wheelchair or to evacuate a person from the crisis area with it.”
Günter Arndt, deputy chairman of the ASB local association in Hamburg-Mitte, explains how the relief supplies are transported to those in need: “Our truck drives to the Polish-Ukrainian borders. Everything is loaded onto smaller vehicles there and taken to Kyiv, for example, via secret routes.” The ASB works with the North German Ukrainian Aid Staff, which was founded by exiled Ukrainians from Hamburg and the surrounding area and has the necessary contacts in the country.
Arndt has been active in foreign aid for many years, and was also there when the Hamburg ASB helped the starving population of St. Petersburg 30 years ago and delivered tens of thousands of food packages to Hamburg’s partner city. Since then, relations with Russia have been close.
And today? Since Russians are not the victims but perpetrators? How is Arndt dealing with it now? “We distinguish between Putin and the Russian people. We still feel close and friendly to the population. You can’t help this escalation. Whether Russian or Ukrainian,” says Arndt – “we help anyone who is in need.”
Would you like to donate to the ASB local association in Hamburg-Mitte? This is how it works: IBAN: DE96 2008 0000 0054 5454 00, keyword: “Ukraine”. Donations via Paypal are also possible: [email protected]. Donations in kind can be handed in here: ASB logistics center for foreign aid, Suurheid 22 (access via Sieversstücken), daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Telephone hotline: 040-831131.
