sorry guys, Vikki is right. We have been busting our butts and I have been absolutely slacking on the updates. This is what's happening:
Up first is what you already know: A drone-pilot friend of ours, named Yaroslav, who doesn't have any military background, was mobilized recently and trained to hit russian armor with drones like you see in all those videos online.
Yaroslav originally asked us for help as he was down to his last pair of trousers and also needed boots. Could we help? Well sure we could! The call went out and before it could be answered, Yaroslav's unit took a strike almost RIGHT where he was sleeping.
I'm sure you remember that everyone survived, but they lost everything in the blast. Escaping in only the shorts and sandals he was wearing at the time, Yaroslav now needed "one of everything."
Again, using only our phones, we were able to find a donor who just so happened to be visiting a friend of hers in Yaro's battalion (the 25th Airborne). We were STOKED when she said she could grab a pair of trousers on the way. I could have SWORE I posted it on here, but I don't see it on the last page (in that red bag is an "Individual First Aid Kid" (IFAK) for Yaro as well.)
I know I say there are millions of us out here, but this is looking like it might have been an understatement. How else could our limited contact list get such results so fast??
Ok, so here's what I'm pretty positive you don't know: Well, someone else heard about the strike and contacted us. Does anyone else in his unit need IFAKS? 100% they do! we got requests from 6 people in his battalion and the donor in question sent 10 (yes, TEN) IFAKs to meet the need.
Then we got word that the 24th Convict battalion (known as "The Redeemed") who were feeling a bit left out. A volunteer from the UK reached out to me and asked if we could help get them simple things like water treatment tablets or protein bars?
We certainly can!
Instantly I had an absolute rock star come through via our FB page with donations of both (already received by the UK volunteer as we speak).
In addition, Mrs. Hungary and I each found a $100 gift card we had gotten from our bank that we couldn't use because it wouldn't work overseas. Well, it took a little more logistical coordinating, but today we found someone willing to haul $200 worth of supplies for "The Redeemed" across the ocean and to our front door!
whew!!!! I honestly didn't know how much longer we can keep pulling this off, but then a mom reached out from Kyiv. Could ANYONE get her some cat food? Her son (approx 15 years old) had been in the hospital for cancer treatment and in the running back and forth, she had no food left to feed her cat. (This is what VikkiDp mentioned about "sad news concerning the cat")
Vikki used our Mother's and Baby's fund, and fired off a rapid response shot in the form of an overnight delivery of cat food. She's a mom, and that's her baby. Exactly what the fund was for
A request came from the 74th Recon. Could anyone help source a couple drone batteries? They're running low!
Not only did we find a donor
but we found out through conversation that this person was supposed to volunteer as a medic in Ukraine but lost their driver. Do we know anyone that needs an extra set of hands? We certainly do! We have a friend of a friend named Natalia and have even donated to her before. She runs a mobile hospital in Kharkiv and would probably LOVE to have some extra muscle around.
I really do LOVE it when a plan comes together.
And then we had some failures that turned into successes. I had some contacts lined up here in Germany to meet with and I spent a fair amount of time detailing the truck to make a good impression
Well, the plans for those meets all fell through when people realized we were serious and started getting cold feet. But even a loss can become a win, because the person who was trying to connect me with the local leadership got so frustrated in the process that he vowed to fill his truck with baby food and diapers and join us on the drive. Our goal will be to deliver them to the maternity hospital, and he reports that already he's had 5 people drop off supplies!!
Dark Monohue (the artist behind the screamin trident) found out how to place that logo on all sorts of merch.
Mrs. Hungary and I? We had been trying our hand at building a website (all paid for by us). Together we're hoping to use both to get more eyes on our little operation. I haven't added the merch yet, but I'm hoping to have it up tomorrow (DniproExpress.com)
Which brings us back to Yaroslav the Drone Pilot, and his situation after the strike. The guy still needs boots, and all this moving things and money around had my bank all sorts of confused. Even though I've been paying all the fees for any cash transfers, they decided they had been charging me too much. To make it right, they deposited $88 in my "Ukraine" account. Now, it's looking like we might have close to enough cash to buy Yaro his boots!!
I think that's it, everyone. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes, and I really don't know how to capture it all so you're able to see it.
Vikki and I are learning that we volunteers can act much faster than gov organizations. We're finding out that we can act as stop-gap solutions until proper fixes can be put in place. I do want to thank you all for being the piece you are in this network. It's only "together" that any of this becomes possible. (And I'm sorry for taking so long to get this update out. Even now, there's MORE things happening that I need to post about)
and what Bill wrote about is only a small part of it.
)!!!
(but I don't blame them for leaving after this spring/summer. russia has REALLY been punishing the Ukrainian cities)
