Moldova, a new relationship in Ukraine and an urgent request for help.

Moldova convoy

Watching the sun rise over Old Orhei, one of Europe's lesser known treasures is not something many of us have experienced, not least due to the fact that Moldova is the least visited country in Europe. The site dates back over 2000 years, however the current incarnation was first built by the Mongols in the 14th Century, and then added to by the Moldovan's in the 16th Century. 

It is highly doubtful that anyone will have the time to visit this amazing archaeological site however, when we take our next aid to the region in roughly 3 weeks time.  

On the 11th August, our 40 tonne artic and one of our 7.5 tonne trucks, Frantic, will join up with a convoy of humanitarian aid heading to Moldova organised by TEECH, who were established in 1998 and have been going to the country for a number of years. 

We will be taking food, toiletries, hygiene and sanitary products, blankets and sleeping bags, to the city of Bălți (almost pronounced Belts), the second largest city in terms of population, area and economic importance, after Chișinău. 

The aid will be divided between local communities and camps that are starting to appear as more and more people leave the country.  Supporting local communities, both in and outside of Ukraine will become key to our operation as we go forward so this, and also the potential new relationship discussed below with Ukraine on Palms, may need to become the focus of our operations over the coming months.  

Warehouse notice and loading assistance 

Our operation and our ability to do what we do relies in a number of things.  Importantly they are financial donations, aid, volunteers, trucks and a warehouse for sorting, loading and general logistics. 

We have been fortunate enough to have been offered a warehouse in Basildon since the start of the war, however we have recently been served notice on this premises and need to leave by the 8th September. 

We urgently need new space in the Essex area in order for us to be able to carry on supplying aid to Europe in the way we have been doing so for the past few months. 

Good quality warehouse space is difficult to come by and expensive so a corporate donor would of course be the ideal solution to this problem.  We ask you to dig deep into your LinkedIn contacts and other networks and please let us know if there is any company or person you know that may be able to assist us with this new premises. 

Whilst we are still there however, we need to also consider the loading for the upcoming trips and we are in desperate need of volunteers for this week coming, on Wednesday and Friday, 27th and 29th July.  If you can help us please do get on touch. 

Ukraine on Palms 

We have been introduced to a new charity based in Kyiv by Sally Becker, The Angel of Mostar and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who we know from our time working in The Balkans. 

The charity was set up in 2015 and work with refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDP's) as well as running and orphanage.  The children from the orphanage have recently been moved to Greece but the organisation are looking to the future and are involved with the renovation of a building that will become a rehabilitation centre, youth centre and educational hub that will also house leisure and social facilities.  We hope that we can nurture this relationship into a long lasting one. 

In the first instance we are seeing if we can get some aid to them via a backload.  Backload prices have shot up recently due to increased security costs and also due to the fact that is taking so long to cross borders in and out of Ukraine that you are effectively having to cover time costs for the waits at borders.    

Assuming we can get the logistics around this sorted out, the backload will contain similar items to what we have been taking elsewhere, food, toiletries, some clothes that have been specifically requested and some school uniform that has been donated by Bruton School for Girls.  These uniforms will be re-badged and supplied to the school that is part of the orphanage that they work with.  Fingers crossed that this can all be pulled together.  

Festival Salvage 

We are still very much in need of volunteers for tent and sleeping bag salvage for Boomtown near Winchester and for Reading which we are doing as always in conjunction with Herts for Refugees. 

The dates for Boomtown are the 15th and 16th August and Reading will be the 29th and 30th August. 

We are particularly in need of people with vans or large estate cars that can assist by picking up the sorted tents and sleeping bags and ferrying them back to the larger trucks. 

If you can help, please let us know and we can pass you onto the right people so that you can be registered and provided with the correct passes that will allow access to the venues. 

London Marathon - Anthony Doyle

This year the TCS London Marathon takes place on the 2nd of October.   We have just the one place this year which was rolled over from 2021 when one of our runners could not take part. 

We are lucky to have Anthony Doyle, a Dublin based personal trainer running for us, and with a personal best of 2.48 if you are wanting to see him cross the line, best you get there early!!! 

Anthony was referred to us by one of last years runners and has posted on his fundraising page: 

My Story:  Since the terrible invasion onto Ukrainian soil, and seeing how it has massively affected all Ukrainian citizens in ways we cannot imagine, I have personally felt compelled to do my small bit to help out in anyway I can. When this opportunity landed into my inbox to run the London marathon for Hope and Aid Direct where all monies raised will go directly to helping the people of Ukraine I simply could not say no. On October 2nd I'll run a gruelling 26.2 miles for this worthy cause.  If you feel compelled to sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated. 

Many thanks to Anthony for taking up the challenge, we all wish him good luck both training in this heat and also of course for the 2nd October. 

And finally..... 

To those of you who have followed our work for many years, some of you will remember our trips to the Konik refugee camp in Montenegro, which at that point in time was the largest refugee camp in Europe.  This of course has been eclipsed many times over in recent years but the camp was one we supported on a few trips to the region and was in desperate need of repair! Many of the refugees who lived there were devoid of papers and were stuck in limbo not being able to move forward or backwards.   

Well a bit of good news story, which is always nice to share... 

We were contacted a few weeks ago by Elizabeth Gowing who told us:

"On Friday I had a meeting with UNHCR in Kosovo as part of my new role (at the beginning of the year the Prime Minister invited me to join his cabinet as adviser for community affairs). In the course of the discussion, I heard an update on Konik camp. Remembering our Easter weekend there 7 years ago, and knowing that you've worked there more extensively, I thought you might like to hear the good news that UNHCR passed on - if you didn't already have an update.

UNHCR in Kosovo worked with the Montenegrin government to get status for the refugees from Kosovo who made up the majority of the camp, and I heard that a total of 1350 people have now got citizenship. The camp is apparently physically transformed (well, it needed to be!) with proper two-storey constructions.

I don't know any more than this, but it is nice to think of those families supported by HaAD back in 2015 [and on a couple of trips before] now having a settled status and more opportunities, and I thought you'd like to know!"