Why we’re all here…
G’day, my name is Dan and I’m an Australian who has been living in Poland for the past eight years. I work in the offshore oil and gas game. In my time off, I’m an avid photographer, shooting mainly at festivals and other events, and now I find myself documenting the war in Ukraine…
My incredible Ukrainian girlfriend, Yulia, and I had been sitting on the couch watching the war last Sunday (27th February), as you do on a romantic weekend!
This Ukraine / Russia disaster has landed in our backyards, so very close to home. I’d attended a protest in Warsaw the previous night and saw Yuliya devastated and scared for her family who live throughout Ukraine.
Family all started to call… They needed help. They were scared and fleeing. At a moment’s notice, we decided to drive to the Ukraine borders and start collecting fleeing cousins and nieces and took them back to our apartment in the safety of Warsaw.
After seeing the desperation at the borders, I immediately decided to continue helping others in need. It was impossible not to be affected by what we had seen.
Check out our origin story here and what happened next here.
With Yuliya and her family safe in Poland, I conjured up some ideas to continue helping…
Driving over to Ukraine and into Lviv has been the primary task so far. Each mission incrementally built upon the previous one, with a better understanding of the lay of the land, what people were facing and how I could help. I started calling in support from friends. Mates back in Australia began bandying together to start raising some funds to help keep the missions happening. Everyone wanted to help in their own way.
Within a few days, I was loading a 9-seater rental van with supplies, food, clothes, blankets and medical aid to take across the border to deliver to terrified civilians in Lviv, who can’t leave their homes due to martial law, curfews, medical complications, and many other reasons … It just seemed like the right thing to do. Returning to Warsaw with up to eight refugees at a time, we made sure people were delivered safely to pre-arranged apartments coordinated through networks and social media. It was all pretty ad hoc to start with...
In just ten days since we’d started, we completed five trips like this*.
How we are getting this done
We have a crowd-funding team of Aussie mates in Melbourne who are supporting our cause and managing this fundraising campaign.
Please consider donating, sharing and getting our story out.
DONATE & SHARE: http://bit.ly/ukraine-warsaw
There is a dedicated crew based here in Warsaw and together we are ensuring that all funds raised are meticulously handled and supplies are delivered directly into the hands of Ukrainians by our team and networks. We want to ensure that funds go directly to Ukrainians in need, and not to organizations where it can get caught up in administration costs, fees, and bureaucracy.
Teaming up with Roger Scott (another Aussie based here in Poland), we have also been sourcing equipment to support civilian soldiers — such as military boots, thermal wear, gloves, generators and medical equipment/supplies. We have been personally collecting items, driving over the border into Lviv and meeting with contacts in the Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces to deliver supplies further afield.
*Update 1-Apr: We now have access to a 50 seater bus and have transported more than 160 people safely from Ukraine to Poland, and reached many, many more through delivery of humanitarian supplies directly to people at the border and/or to contacts in Ukraine for on-passage to where they are needed most. We’re networking hard, to support people fleeing from eastern and southern Ukraine — those under fire and stuck behind enemy lines. We are coordinating with other groups supporting people travelling through the recently established ‘humanitarian corridors’, meeting them in Lviv and transporting them safely into Poland. We are making sure that people are not just left alone at the borders without shelter, food or plans — we are delivering people safely to accommodation in Poland and providing support (where we can) to help them plan for what comes next in their uprooted lives. We have also connected sponsors directly with people needing ongoing support. This is all about them. We are doing so much but it always feels like it’s not enough.
Directly supporting refugees fleeing their homes, people staying behind, and the Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces, we are documenting our journey here for completely transparency about where funds are going and how they are making a difference.
Logistics and funds are the biggest hurdles; however, the generosity of the donors is helping us get the job done.
We have ongoing orders from hospitals, civilians, refugees, soldiers, and more… We need more donations so we can continue to scale up our people-moving operations, source supplies, and diversify spending to put funds and resources straight into the back pockets of Ukrainians who need it most.
Each mission, we expand our networks, and realize the scale of ongoing devastation and desperation in Ukraine. So much more support is needed — not only for people fleeing, but for those who cannot, or choose not to leave.
We need help.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you connect with what we are doing, and feel this is something you can support, join us. Be a small part of the solution to this humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes: Dig deep and donate now.
Give the link a share while you’re at it too!
DONATE & SHARE: bit.ly/ukraine-warsaw
Good on you.
More: COMPLETED MISSIONS
More: NEWS & MEDIA UPDATES
More: WHAT’S NEXT?
