What to do ? How to help? How to feel a little useful from a distance? Six days following Russia invaded Ukraine, many are wondering how to help the Ukrainian people. And without waiting, solidarity has already been organized.
Basic necessities, food rations or thermal clothing: associations and individuals, particularly within the Ukrainian diaspora, are mobilized to collect donations and send them to Ukraine.
“We need medical equipment”
In Paris and Ile-de-France, the Plast association, which brings together Ukrainian scouts in France, has been hard at work for several days. “We have set up various humanitarian aid collection points throughout the Paris region, explains Olenka, vice-president of the association. We are in constant contact with Ukraine, we made a list specifies the products and goods needed and is updated regularly to meet the most important and urgent needs”. As a priority, “we need medical equipment, insists Olenka. Bandages, surgical equipment kits, syringes, but also flashlights or thermal clothing and generators, ”says the young woman. On the other hand, classic clothing, blankets and toys are not currently among the products collected.
For its part, the association Charitable medical aid France-Ukraine (AMCFU) focuses its action on the collection of larger professional medical equipment. Created in 2014, AMCFU has sent in recent years “nearly 90 humanitarian convoys with more than 1,000 tonnes of medical equipment, furniture and medical consumables intended for Ukrainian hospitals”, recalls Dmytro Atamanyuk, director of the association. A call for donations was thus launched with hospitals, administrations and companies in France to collect large pieces of technical medical equipment, such as “stretchers, respirators, defibrillators” and even “ambulances”. But also “emergency hemorrhage kits-individual attack”, “occlusive dressings for chest wounds, tourniquets” and all the materials and drugs necessary to treat Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who might be injured by Russian forces.
“Trucks go back and forth every day”
Once collected, all donations are sorted and packaged. “We take care of all the logistics: we have vehicles made available and driven by Ukrainians from France. The first convoys have already left, trucks are going back and forth every day to the border with Ukraine,” adds Olenka. And within the diaspora in France, individual initiatives are also emerging. Mikhail, who lives in Paris, appealed for donations on social media. “Like many Ukrainians in France, with my friends, we work on building sites. We are part of a small amateur football team. When the conflict broke out, we immediately said to ourselves that we had to react, so we launched our appeal”.
And solidarity was there: “we received a lot of medicine and something to treat our soldiers, but also basic products for children, as well as flashlights, batteries and candles, and we are going to continue the collection. At the same time, found vehicles and in a few days we have already sent five trucks to Poland. There, volunteers take over to bring the convoys to the other side of the border, to Ukraine. It is important to do this to help our country. Four of our friends, who were with us in Paris, have returned home to join the armed forces,” says Mikhail, who wishes with this initiative to bring concrete help to his people.
Prize pools launched
A solidarity that affects these Ukrainian nationals living in France. “As soon as we launched our appeal, many supportive individuals, Ukrainians and French, brought us their donations,” says Olenka. A generosity that also moves Mikhaïl, who “thanks all the French people who help us”. The aid is also financial. In addition to material goods, “we launched a call for donations “says Dmytro Atamanyuk. And it was heard. For the time being, the objective of one million euros has not yet been reached, but more than a thousand donors have already responded to this call, making it possible to collect nearly 100,000 euros. And in France as in the rest of Europe, associations and volunteers are preparing for a massive influx of refugees. This is how the network was born Support Ukrainea portal on which anyone ready to welcome Ukrainian families can register.
To date, more than 500,000 refugees from Ukraine have already been registered by the United Nations in neighboring countries. The French state for its part has sent 33 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Poland to help Ukrainians who have fled their country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. And more than 30 tons of material will leave for Moldova at the beginning of the week: “tents, medicines, food”, “everything that helps people to be welcomed in the best conditions”.