It is now over one thousand days since Russia invaded Ukraine and this devastating conflict seems likely to continue into an ever darker future for its people. We have heard about Ukrainian resistance and resourcefulness,
It is now over one thousand days since Russia invaded Ukraine and this devastating conflict seems likely to continue into an ever darker future for its people. We have heard about Ukrainian resistance and resourcefulness, and we may ask ourselves what can we do to make a difference. One New Forest group is helping to make the difference. It shows just what volunteers can achieve and is always on the lookout for more volunteers to join it.
Since February 2022 New Forest For Ukraine or NFFU has been gathering and sending vital supplies to Ukraine, delivering “a future of hope”. Sending a lorry of goods at least every 2 weeks since then, John Allison and his team have now registered as a charity to send humanitarian aid. NFFU has built up links with a network of NGOs on the ground in Ukraine so it can be sure distribution gets to where it is needed. They get direct feedback and even have GPS trackers on large items which makes them fairly unique in this door-to-door traceability. and ability to respond quickly to particular emergency requests. Stuffed entirely by volunteers, NFFU is sure that “every penny you donate will help us deliver aid to people in need.”
Goods sent have emotional as well as practical value. A generator can help to power a street or an area during a blackout and not just one home. An item sent can show people in Ukraine how much people in the UK care. This winter there are 18m people needing help, including 4m displaced from their homes and 4 m children. The close links and regular contacts demonstrate to those back in the UK just how much difference they are making, even if only a glimpse of light in the dark days of war. When I met with Sandra Quinn, NFFU press co-ordinator, she emphasised to me just how much work is needed to make all this happen and the ongoing need to keep the plight of those in Ukraine current and in the minds of the public – what this charity has achieved and continues to get done is extraordinary. But all this work needs to keep going. Those who lived through the second world war and remember the postwar years can perhaps imagine what the Ukrainian people are going through, but compassion fatigue is a risk in the face of so much conflict worldwide.
Most of the aid from NFFU is shipped in large articulated lorries out to NGOs that distribute it. These are NGOs that range from supporting thousands of displaced people and those in need right through to small communities such as a care centre caring for 55 elderly, disabled people or individuals with dementia started by another resourceful Ukrainian after alternative centres were destroyed.
As of November, nearly 400 metric tonnes have been delivered to Ukraine, sorted and packed from NFFU’s hub in Lymington. Goods are collected from any of over 26 collection points across the New Forest and beyond. Some comes from as far away as Birmingham and Wales. Every lorry carries 52 filled pallets and needs are such that by November 2024 almost a lorry a week it’s travelling out to Ukraine.
Despite having over 100 registered volunteers, NFFU always welcomes more volunteers and there is a wide range of things to do. The team is busy with managing receipt of donations, local transportation, sorting and packing, administration, awareness events and fund-raising, making up medical supplies, knitting baby clothes, logistics and communications – quite a range of transferable skills for any volunteer to gain!
Sessions of sorting, packing, and receiving goods take place for 3-4 hours Monday to Saturday with teams of volunteers led by a supervisor – it is hard work, but also fun and a way to make friends during tea breaks – more details are available on the website – see below.
And of course financial help is also valued as NFFU needs to fund its transport of goods .
What items are needed now? It’s all about winter, the cold and blackouts. So there is a demand for in date long life, canned and dried food, toiletries, hygiene products, in date non- prescription medication and medical products, batteries and power banks, LED torches, candles, generators (new or able to be serviced and sent on) and warm winter bedding, clothes and shoes. Wax for making trench candles is even needed – older New Forest volunteers preparing these perhaps recall as children collecting sphagnum moss for dressing wounds in the second World War!
In December 2024 the team loaded 8-9 lorries per week with 420 Tonnes of aid and 427 generators.
If you would like to hep this local charity in any way see the contact details below and be assured that this will really make a difference and get to those in need in Ukraine.
New Forest For Ukraine – charity no.1208709
www.newforestforukraine.org Facebook : New Forest for Ukrain GROUP
