ATLANTA – From the start of the summer, the military offence of Ukraine has been gaining momentum, but there is still no true end of conflict in sight. Since the Independence Day Celebration last August, HelpingUkraine.us and its partners have worked tirelessly to provide aid and relief to the citizens in Ukraine. While efforts have shifted and adapted to fulfil the distinct needs of our contacts, but mission remains laser-focused: Help Ukraine.
Beginning last fall, HelpingUkraine.us and its partners began to broaden their scope of relief from supplying hospitals with medical equipment and supplies, to serving individuals and communities with more functional necessities. Throughout the fall and into the cold winter months, HU team members delivered: 4000 blankets, 400 wood-burning stoves, and 80 generators to 50 different villages along the war front.
The 80 generators powered three orphanages and three hospitals with 1500 total beds. These hospitals would not be in operation without the generators that operated the water systems and essential medical equipment. Other generators purify drinking water for more than 500,000 people at community water pumps in various towns. HelpingUkraine was able to open and manage 24 Hope Centers in 24 communities, providing people a hot meal, electricity to charge their devices, and most importantly: fellowship.
As the warm months arrived, HelpingUkraine’s team helped communities “Spring” back to life, replanting gardens and renewing farming that was destroyed by Russian artillery. Ken Ward, HelpingUkraine.us’ on-the-ground leader, delivered 4.5 tons of potatoes, 8000 packets of seeds that grew 17 different vegetables, and 1000 chickens to 100 families – kickstarting the self-sustainability these villages required.
Because of the passionate individuals, like Ken Ward, involved in this organization, several new, efficacious partnerships were created. Innovative, Atlanta-based wound care company, ProgenaCare Global among the most fruitful. Donating $3 million worth of the company’s products, co-founder John Daniel, trained doctors, and nurses in 12 hospitals throughout Ukraine on how to apply the novel dressings to quickly heal soldiers and civilians alike.
Through John Daniel’s involvement and connections, he was able to help secure the donation of two ambulances from Mississippi-based, Pafford EMS. These ambulances traveled across the southeast before loading on a cargo ship headed to Ukraine. The vehicles are set to arrive by the end of the August, accompanying a shipment of medical equipment that officially mark more than $1 million worth of supplies distributed, with warehousing and logistics courtesy of Tucker-based, FODAC (Friends of Disabled Adults and Children).
HelpingUkraine.us’ latest endeavor begins this week, sending 150 children to a summer camp in the mountains, out of the warzone and safe from Russian attacks. This effort, like all the other projects to date, would not be possible without the help from selfless and benevolent individuals who have made donations. There is so much more we can do, and much more to come. Help us. Help them.
