Ukraine Refugee Assistance

VikkiDp said:

 

 

A little explain if i may 

The patch says "Volunteer" on it and the postcard - "Good evening, we're from Ukraine!"

and i'd like to congrats you Brian - you've become part of a funny story  and now we have something to tell about, as Bill likes to say, and something or someone(spoiler - me ) to laugh at.

When i received the addresses from Bill i realized right away that one of them is matthewmcl and i had no idea "who is it?" about the other(yours). I was also thinking - what a strange name is that? (you know what i mean ). The recipient's details looked like  - "name" Kids. Hmmm... last name looked strange as well 

But i did'n want to bother Bill about that and i had to hurry to get the prizes sent out because it was the only day i could make it to the post office before it closed. So packages had sent successfully but i was still wondering who the other winner is  i texted Bill next day to ask him - What the second winner's nickname is? He sent me your e-mail and then i understood everything... yeah  

funny stories is continuing... they always will be... and we'll always have stories to tell...

my only wish is that they will be good stories 

Say Hello!!! to your kiddos from me 

Ha!!

Yes thank you so much. I'm glad to be part of a silly story. Sorry I was confusing! I have four kids so I thought it was easier to address it to "kids"!

They are delighted to be part of something helpful. It's a little more real for them now. I really love what you and Bill are doing. It's amazing. Keep it up and stay safe!!

VikkiDp said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

 

Have a question - i forgot to ask before - what happened with Toyota's bumper? i noticed that part of the bumper is missing. Did i miss something?

Ooh..  The short version is "Africa".  It's just a plastic piece and I have dreams of welding up a new bumper so I haven't bothered to replace it.  But for the longer story, we'll have to wait until I can get back to updating m Africa thread

matthewmcl said:

I won raffle prizes! These came in on Thursday, but we have been having computer issues.

Here is the notes that go with the bottom post cards and stamps:

I am going to see about framing some up. They are such a mix of emotions to look at. They are a beautiful reminder of current atrocities, the dreams of children shining through horrors.. I am very thankful to have them, even if they make me tear up.

I'm not gonna lie, that soldier one hits me hard.  It doesn't help that someone always seems to be chopping onions every time it makes its appearance.

tuna55 said:

Yes thank you so much. I'm glad to be part of a silly story. Sorry I was confusing! I have four kids so I thought it was easier to address it to "kids"!

I got a good laugh out of this one because when you're used to dealing with an American with my last name, then the "Kids" family name doesn't sound that out of place.

I was imagining Vikki out there reading the name like "all these americans have such weird and simple last names.... "

VikkiDp said:

You know even in these circumstances, it's important to keep dreaming and keep the light in your soul. Right now, the main dream is Victory and Peace. Kids(not only in Ukraine) shouldn't grow up in that kind of environment. Because of this, it's impossible to look at kids' drawings without tears.

Quoting because I think this couldn't be repeated enough.

VikkiDp said:

all these things need to get to their destination as soon as possible.

I have one more donation (from Clockwork, and two other outside donors) that I'm waiting to hit my bank and then I'm going to fire all this off in one shot.  I'm hoping the cash hits my bank soon.  This will total almost $2500 in medical supplies by the time it's call sent out.

Alrighty!  I've just made the Kisgorbo transfer which means it must be time for an update!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a Vikki month.  All donations collected through our Gmail Paypal account will be transferred to her at the end of the month.  (Hi Vikki!).  We already have 175,944 in the account and this comes just after we sent 183,232 off to our favorite Hungarian mayor!

Go fund me is still closed, expect a Nov 1 opening day on that one.

Ira's art supplies are still on hold.  No new developments.  If you remember she said that the books she needs are printed in Kharkiv and of course that means there are bunches of problems and delays with getting those out here.  Still standing by.

We still do not have an international freight forwarder online yet, but we do have a Hungarian address that I can share with anyone who was interested in shipping something directly to my PO box here.

Hospitallers and Rebekah M. are still radio silent.  I'm kicking at every door I can find to get one of these to open, but if something doesn't happen with them VERY soon, then I'm going to take Vikki up on her offer to send what we have to her medic friends.  (currently on hand are 200ea decompression needles, 2ea CAT tourniquets, 1ea SOF tourniquet, israeli bandages, and approximately $650 in available cash.  $4000 waiting to be released).  North American rescue in Ukraine is aware of what we're doing and is standing by for our order to be placed.  Their quote matches US prices and includes shipping to any Novoposht office.

Stuffies!  Still have a box of those!  I'm really hoping to find a channel to get things across the pond again.  I really thought this was a good effort, and would like to see it back in action.

Cheers everyone, and happy Monday!

Currently Open:

Vikki's "Mothers and Children" (Monthly Sustainment):  paypal@gmail address (Hungarian Forint)

Hospitallers Battalion/Rebekah M (chest vents needed):  paypal@yahoo address (US Dollars)

P.O. Box address available for any parties interested in shipping items directly to me in Hungary (PM for address)

Currently being worked on:

I'm removing the links to the Hospitallers Amazon wishlists due to ongoing issues on their end.  They can not seem to deliver what we need to neither my current address nor my PO box.  

If the Amazon.com situation changes, I'll repost the lists here.

Rebeka M. Communication is ongoing.  She is currently radio silent for reasons unknown (um.. Bill..  Maybe it's because she' part of a major offensive?).  Once I reestablish contact, we can ship supplies.

Reestablishing Hospitallers Communication: I can see that my messages to the Hospitallers representative I've been in contact with are being shown as "not received".  My message to my secondary contact in Poland has been received and read, but not responded to.  So far e-mails have gone unanswered, as have SMS messages.  Still kicking at doors with this one.

Currently Closed:

GoFundMe:  Expect this channel to open on the 1st of November for our Christmas run.

Social media accounts:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/510575651154518

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/dniproexpress/

Thank you everyone!

So, the far-right ultra-nationalist facton in our (US) government is holding our country hostage unless their demands are met. Among those demands are an end of funding to Ukraine.

I will remember this come election time.

We don't turn our backs on our friends.

AClockworkGarage said:

So, the far-right ultra-nationalist facton in our (US) government is holding our country hostage unless their demands are met. Among those demands are an end of funding to Ukraine.

I will remember this come election time.

We don't turn our backs on our friends.

Amen. 

Plus, it's super weird that it's probably the same folks who are very eager to fight Iraq in 2004.

well that's not political at all.

jmabarone said:

well that's not political at all.

War is political. It is impossible to keep the two separate.

This thread is about helping the Ukrainian people defend their country from imperialist violence. If that means we give up our daily coffee in order to send one set of chest seals, we do that. If that means we  don't go out to eat so that we can get some war refugee heating oil, we do that. If that means strip our legislative body of people actively working to support the aggressors, well we do that too.

If that offends your political sensibilities, then you should sit down and take a look at your political sensibilities.

Nope, not offended at all.  Just don't see how it is relevant to this thread whatsoever.  

I'm all about what everyone in this thread is doing to help the people in and from Ukraine.  

jmabarone said:

Nope, not offended at all.  Just don't see how it is relevant to this thread whatsoever. 

Because it's aid from a government, just not from volunteers. Ignoring what's happening when we're trying to do our part is foolish.

Well guys,

Vikki and I are working through our destination issues for our medical supplies and the money donations that were originally meant for the hospitallers.  I'm through most of the phone numbers they have listed now, and all the way through the e-mail addresses and not a soul has gotten back to me.  I really wonder what happened.

Anyhoo.  As if on cue, Rebekah M got back to me.  I asked her an innocuous question in an effort to re-establish communication without being all  "PLEEEASE RESPOND TO MEEEEEEEEE (insert tears here)" in the form of "Can you confirm that TPAK decompression needles are suitable subs for NAR ARS decompression needles before i send these your way?" 

It took a couple days (but you knew that) but yesterday she got back to me.



It was a simple "let me check" but it's life.  The ball is in her court now, but its not holding anything up.  If her needs/training is similar to that of the Hospitallers, then either TPAK or ARS should work in place of each other (with ARS being the preferred).

Regardless of how that goes, we are in touch with Vikki's medic friends and they're relaying their needs back to us.  With the cash on hand, we'll be able to help there too.  Their needs aren't the same as the Hospitallers, but very much in the same field.  It'll be nothing to transition over and get them everything we can.

Meanwhile I was up a bit late last night

My grandmother and her neighbor donated $300 to our efforts last August.  it took me a while, but I finally got pictures printed out for them.  Being tech challenged and all, I thought printed pictures with hand written info on the back would be the best way to communicate how much their efforts helped us along.  I'll be mailing those off shortly, and hopefully they'll join in again for our Christmas run 

Good times, y'all
 

oh!  Quick edit:

I did notice that before I sent Rebekah my question, that she had locked her Facebook account.  That had me kind of worried.  It's still locked, but she apparently got my message so that's a good sign.

With cyber attacks, spam, and just massive amounts of messages sometimes, I can only speculate as to why she locked up her social media but I'm glad that if she's decided to cut off the outside world that she let us in before she did (I think it means she's taking us seriously in our offers to help, and thinks that we have something to offer).

Good stuff.

In a frame up on the wall

That looks great, man!  well done!

Not sure if you guys saw but Ukraine had two Iskander landers in the Kharkiv oblast.  One splashed near an apartment in Kharkiv, and it's reported that one child died with 16 more wounded.  The other landed in a town named Hroza, and was a direct hit on a cafe where locals were gathered for a reburial ceremony for one of their residents who died in the fighting.  51 are reported dead in this town of just over 300 people.  30% of the town's population are now dead or injured as a result.

It was that last picture that got me thinking.  I remember that Woody was able to ask his local firefighters if they had any PPE (gloves, or hoods, etc) that they couldn't use due to things like expired certification dates and other non-issues that wouldn't bother Ukrainian rescue workers.  In the end he was able to fill a large flat rate box with supplies and we got it into country.

The bottleneck for this is always going to be the ocean between us, but as of this very moment I'm on kinda friendly talking terms with someone who might be willing to let us use his freight forwarding service as a one-time favor.  If not him, then I have a similar relationship with the person who bought my car.  I'm 100% not above buttering them up with loads of home-baked goods to help things along (a vary rare item for these people out here, and 100% how I kept the last channel open).

So I thought I'd put this out there.  If any of you (or all of you) wanted to pop in to your local FD and ask about any expired items they had (but were otherwise 100% in serviceable condition) and take up a collection on Ukraine's behalf, I'd be willing to go all in on this bet and get us a one-time-use address to get them here.  From there I could drive them into country and get them to a department that needed them.

You'd be welcome to use anything posted on social media as assurance for anyone who needs it that we're doing what we say we're doing.

If I fail in the buttering up of said shipping channel then I'll happily put my money where my mouth is and pay the shipping myself.

Let me know what you guys think.

Ok, truck update (truckpdate?)

This is what the passenger window sounded like after our most recent Ukrainian run.  One dirt road too many, I think:

 

Driver's side was very much the same:

That's that.  No electronics, no problems!

Now I just gotta find door cards

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Those could be hard to find. Not that you need another project, but you might have to get a sheet of 1/4" plywood (or nearest Euro approximation), pick your door cards apart to salvage the top roll, and make your own. Or maybe you'll get lucky enough to find a pair from a manual-window Hilux and can just cut them for the rear door handles.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

So I thought I'd put this out there.  If any of you (or all of you) wanted to pop in to your local FD and ask about any expired items they had (but were otherwise 100% in serviceable condition) and take up a collection on Ukraine's behalf, I'd be willing to go all in on this bet and get us a one-time-use address to get them here.  From there I could drive them into country and get them to a department that needed them.

You'd be welcome to use anything posted on social media as assurance for anyone who needs it that we're doing what we say we're doing.

I can try this with several departments thanks to my background, but understand that we might be shipping materials via freight and not simply mailing- so I'll probably have to help pay. I used to have feet in the doors of 7+ departments, lemme see what I can scrounge together.

In fire training I don't remember a discussion of standards or if the US has different fittings or parts from European fire equipment- Vikki and Bill, are you able to check? Little reason to send old SCBAs and oxygen tanks if ya'll can't fill them.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

On this end, what kinds if things "expire?" I definitely see SCBA tanks if someone doesn't want to hydrotest, but do the jackets etc. expire or just get replaced when worn too much? What kinds of things should we be asking for?

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Ooh..  The short version is "Africa".  It's just a plastic piece and I have dreams of welding up a new bumper so I haven't bothered to replace it.  But for the longer story, we'll have to wait until I can get back to updating m Africa thread 

hmmm... well, i had an idea that Africa was the reason  

and really can't wait the continuation on that thread. It's like you reading an interesting adventure book at night, but you know the main character personally in this case