Together with Ukraine

On March 5th, along with the Rotary Clubs in Falticeni (Romania) and Chernivtsi (Ukraine), a large quantity of medicine, tinned food and nappies were loaded onto trucks and sent over the border into Ukraine. The goods will be distributed to women and children in need as well as families running out of essential goods.

On March 5th/6th, the items crossed the Romanian border with Ukraine and arrived at a warehouse in the city of Chernivtsi. Pictured here are local Rotarians unloading the trucks of goods that were bought in Romania.

On Tuesday, March 8th, Thomas and Eric assisted the Rotary Club Falticeni to distribute food to the Ukrainian refugees arriving in the town. This initiative was started by the RC Falticeni since the first days of the war.

The women with children who arrive in Falticeni are accommodated in appartments which are presently not used or not needed by Romanians. But they have nothing more than their clothing. So, it’s important that they get at least one good-portioned hot meal a day, which the Rotary club together with other local associations provides. When visiting, the RC also asks whether they can help with other things. They, for example, organise that children can be included in local kindergardens or schools to keep them busy.

On March 9th, Eric and Thomas did an urgent delivery of essential goods to the border town of Siret. The items delivered resulted from an evaluation they did on Monday on the ground, asking “what are the most urgent needs?” and “what does not anyone do at the moment?”.  The authorities gave them a list of items including: winter boots for children, boots, gloves, scarves, caps/hats and cleaning material for schools and town halls where refugees are hosted.

The total value of the goods was approximately 3’500 Euro. The goods were handed over to the town authorities of Siret and then distributed to the refugees arriving at the border and those already accommodated in temporary facilities in town.

After 4,500 km, Eric and Thomas are back where they started. They have worked tirelessly to coordinate and help Ukrainians both fleeing but also still in the country.

As part of our Club's continued focus on tackling the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, we partnered with RC Genève-Lac to bring palates of essential goods from Geneva to Cernivci. A special thanks to Onefm Radio, Migros and Harsch trucks for providing their expertise and support of this growing project.

The truck, sponsored by the Geneva company Harsch, arrived in Falticeni on April 8th and the items were then offloaded onto a Ukrainian truck on April 9th. The Rotary Club in Cernivci will then distribute the items to people in need.

On March 9th, the goods that were sent from Switzerland arrived in Cernivci, Ukraine after a pit stop in Faltecini, Romania. Pictured below is the RC Cernivci, who are responsible for the distribution of the goods to people in need.

Our Board has approved at the beginning of this week a next tranche of 25’000 CHF for the Ukraine programme. On Wednesday, our friends from RC Falticeni have purchased everything which was on the list we received from the RC Cernivci in Ukraine (which you find attached to this mail). They then transported all the goods to a warehouse at the border, from where they will be transported to Cernivci very shortly. They the goods will be sent on to the frontline cities and towns where they will be distributed to the individual beneficiaries by members of the local Rotary clubs.

All the goods on the list provided by RC Cernivci was purchased and transported to a warehouse on the border town of Siret.