Des Vivres pour L’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine

21/09/2024

Making it to Kherson with Des Vivres pour L’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine and good friend Maxime Barrat.

A pleasure once again to do a trip with a good friend and also to share the driving with him. That is letting him drive 99% of the trip :)

It’s always a pleasure to head back to Kherson where I have many memories.
Kherson which was freed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces of which Max was a part at that time. It’s interesting along the road to hear the comments and memories of when they were advancing to liberate the City.

A pleasure to be going back to bring goods to Vladimir whose hospitality has always been incredible ever since my first delivery to the Kherson Humanitarian Center.
His wife and other people from the center always preparing me a meal before I go.
The kindness of these people and of the Ukrainians whose code of hospitality is to stuff you with their local foods.
Vladimir was a boat captain before the full scale invasion in 2022. Unable to leave the country anyways once he had returned, he had put his energy to helping the people of Kherson and its surroundings.

I still remember fondly my first visit in the cold where we stayed warm at his house with his wife and him for a Lunch after the delivery by putting our hands above the gas stove which was the only functionning energy available there then.

I remember also the taste of the incredible strawberry and rasberry jams they gave me to fatten up and have energy for the trips that his wife had made.

The pleasure of friendly faces and familiar places I guess.

Then it’ll be back to pick up more goods for the next trip to the Northeast of Ukraine.

12/09/2024

A second trip here with Des Vivres pour L’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine

Down to Mykolayiv now and Kherson and the warehouse down there we’ve long worked with there.

It’s real nice to have great friend Maxime Barrat travelling with.
Over the years we’ve known each eather here in Ukraine it’s the first time we actually get proper chill not training or each of us running around doing our things.
Grateful for company and those big arms for loading!

Delivering beds here in Mykolayiv before continuing to Kherson.

30/08/2024

Today is a special day. One year ago Our Friend Forever Sam Newey passed away.
Leaving us with the memories of his presence in our lives.
You made us all laugh and was one of a kind.
Thank you for having introduced me to the Ukrainian humanitarian world when we first gotten into Ukraine.
Thanks for the laughs and the company down with the Dark Angels in Mykolayiv.
I’ll continue to miss you, but will remember your smile when I go past a Shawarma shop.
I’ll remember our other friends Daniel Burke and Pezz Perryman too.

30/08/2024

Back in Ukraine Des Vivres pour L’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine. Arrived in L’viv and ready to pick up the van and start the journey towards Poltava.

The van was still running smoothly after 2 months of idling at a warehouse we work with.

Filled up the van to the brim of items and beds to go East.

I got in Lviv the night of the first recent strikes against the electrical infrastructure that is causing rationing of electricity country wide. Rolling hours of electricity availability are set with usually 3 time periods. One with electricity, one with “maybe” electricity, and one blackout time.

Luckily the IVC - International Volunteer Center that let me crash there for my first night back into Lviv, is located on a spot of the network with essential services allowing them to have more electricity times than other.

From Lviv it’ll be direction Kyiv for the night and meeting good friend Maxime Barrat

18/08/2024

Ukraine Update Des Vivres pour L’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine Long time no posting…
A little request for some help.

I haven’t posted much or at all during my last trips between August 2023 - December 2023 nor during this Spring 2024 trip for a few reasons.
One main was operationnal Security as I did training and worked with great people that need to be protected from information leaks.
The mourning of my friends Sam Newey, Daniel Burke and Pezz Perryman took a toll on my energy levels and on my willingness to engage openly or beyond the few people that shared this common pain.
And lastly I still had a small amount of funds left that allowed me to do the humanitarian runs I was asked to do towards the East.

I’m now going back in a week to Ukraine for a month’s humanitarian stay (and another trip being planned for November/December).

But the funds gathered over time that were used exclusively for the trips evacuating people out of the conflict zones and on the fuel to transport goods from the West of Ukraine (and occasionally from Poland) to the less served areas of Ukraine in the East or South that were close to the front lines.

The evacuation needs have reduced since the beginning of the war but the newd can spark up at any moment depending on the evolution of the situation.

This important cargo consisting often of medicine, medical equipment, spare parts for MRI and X-Ray equipment, as well as food kits for the remote villagers that have refused to leave their homes despite being in the “hot zones” near the trench and front lines.

We would also ensure that we’d never leave free space in the van on our trips and would complete our loads with other items as human food, drinks, pet food, candy and crackers that would support peoples morale.

We’d also distribute stuffed animals that we collected to children and occasionnaly to the mental hospital that is dear to us in Odesa that had received the displaced women from Mykolayiv and Kherson at the time.

The Ukrainian people still need our help to get these goods to where they need to be.

That’s why I’m asking you for any financial help you could provide.
Here is the link for my Euro crowdfunding page where you can see how every euro was used with copies of the receipts as well:

There is also a gofundme page for US donors the link being lower down on this post and the US funds being transferred to the Euro fundraiser.

https://lydia-app.com/pots?id=69472-des-vivres-pour-l-ukraine

https://gofund.me/2fde6007

Thanks for any help you could provide.

We’ll keep you informed of this trip on my facebook and on the specific Des Vivres pour l’Ukraine / Goods for Ukraine pages (click on it and like/suscribe at the beginning of this post)

The Crowdfunding for Goods For Ukraine Le Crowdfunding des Vivres pour l’Ukraine https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083513194954 We use these funds to fuel our van and transport goods inside Ukraine. Most of which we collect from other NGOs and transport for them. We occasionally do our ow...