23-MAR: ALL ‘AUSSIE-POLAND-UKRAINE’ ADVENTURES! (coach trips, BBQs & more)

23rd March, 2022.

We’ve been flat out planning and scheming to scale up the operations, and haven’t had much time to write it down for blog updates… but here goes a quick one to bring you up to speed on at least some of the story so far!

We finally got access to a bus(!) and could embark upon our first…

All Aussie-Poland-Ukraine Adventures!

Our most recent mission was a 27-hour round trip from Warsaw to Ukraine, and back to Warsaw, to deliver nearly 10,000 PLN worth of supplies (that’s about $3K AUD) and coordinate ~35 Ukrainian refugees, a couple of dogs, and a bird (a cockatiel maybe?) onto a coach and get them safely into Poland.

Team “All Aussie-Poland-Ukraine” about to set off with a bus full of supplies!

100 points to the team, it really was a mammoth effort. Only to return back to Warsaw exhausted, bombarded with requests for media interviews and more admin/coordination, brainstorming, planning, networking and meetings . No rest for the wicked, hey?

So, we ’d hired a coach to fill with supplies and took it all to the Lviv Humanitarian Centre for direct transport to Kyiv and beyond — where people are really in need and harder to access from outside Ukraine. Once supplies were off-loaded, the team headed to the Lviv Central railway station where most refugees are arriving from all over Ukraine and volunteers are working hard to coordinate transport to help them get out.

~10,000 PLN worth of supplies delivered to the Lviv Humanitarian Centre on 23-March.

Under the constant sound of air raid sirens, Roger and Dan threw a bunch of Aussie-style snags on the barbie (because, why not BBQ in a crisis!?). It was a raging success and rivalled any good Bunnings car park sausage sizzle…

Don’t burn the snags, Roger!

People were eating hot snags and jumping on the coach with destination Warsaw in mind. Despite some challenges at the border everyone made it safely into Poland, and Anna helped those without accommodation find somewhere to rest for the night and days ahead.

…Who’s Anna you ask?

Introducing Anna K!

We have employed a Ukrainian migrant as our Euro coordinator extraordinaire! Anna is helping us purchase equipment, locate resources, contact manufactures, and daily logistics during trips (booking coach seats, purchase SIM cards and other much needed items at the border, finding accommodation for those without plans when arriving in Poland, and ensuring follow-ups for those who need additional support).

Anna has made so much more possible with her ideas, can-do attitude, endless array of skills, and agility to navigate all the bumps in the road (and there’s been plenty — like the time the rental company sent some henchmen into Ukraine to recover what they thought might be a stolen vehicle — oops!).

Anna is smashing it with her genius ideas, diverse skills, and Aussie-wrangling!

Thanks to Anna’s help — and the many legends who helped us pull this together in the lead up and on the day: Laura DiBiase, Phil Forbes, Jonathan Roy and our bus driver, Tomek — we considered our first ‘big mission’ a massive success. We’d arrived with a plan but had no idea if it would work... It did. It bloody did!

With sirens blaring, Dan (left) and Roger (right) reflect on a long day, just before taking off with a full coach of people embarking on a new life in Warsaw!

Supplies sourced, purchased & delivered

Each mission we are taking as many supplies and resources with us to help people in Ukraine.

Thanks to the fundraising campaign — led by the awesome team back in Oz — we have funds and resources to source, purchase and deliver much needed items to refugees fleeing Ukraine, civilians staying behind, and items to help out the severely under-resourced Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces.

Items so far include: wood for fires at the border crossings to keep people warm; supplies/groceries for Ukrainian citizens entering Poland; critical medicine that is hard to come by in Ukraine (e.g., seizure meds for an epileptic child and mental health medications); nappies; baby food; children’s toys, etc. Whatever is needed…

Other purchases and deliveries for the Ukraine Territorial Defense Force have included: a 200Kg 10kW diesel generator (more on that mission here); digital and analogue radios; batteries; antibiotics and other critical medicines; thermal clothing; sleeping bags; yoga mats; collapsible chairs; backpacks, military gloves & boots to support conscripted soldiers staying behind to protect their home from invasion.

Delivering the 200kg (10kW) diesel generator. Check out the full story here.

To date, we have now transported 50+ Ukrainian refugees to Poland over 6 missions. Not a bad effort given we started with 2 or 3 passengers at a time in a small car. We’ve scaled up the people-moving to the comfort of coach travel, and can now transport 40–50 people at a time (a second coach run happening as we upload this blog!).

We’ve also transported two journalists from Warsaw in Lviv and done a bunch of media interviews to tell our story and the story of the Ukrainians we’ve encountered.

We recognize how vital it is that the truth is reported…

Help us make more missions!

We will continue these missions. We have some amazing plans in the pipeline — massive collaborations with other legends doing their bit to get people out of Ukraine safely. But as we scale up, so does the cost.

We need help.

Please consider donating and sharing so we can keep this up long term.

DONATE & SHARE: bit.ly/ukraine-warsaw

Thanks for sticking with us on this journey.

Massive love.

Next up: 27–28 MAR: LVIV BOMBED | BUS FROM MARIUPOL (Roger’s Story)

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