Helping Poland and Ukraine

[gatorsmom]

I've been meaning to post this for over a week but kept forgetting. A good, local friend of mine is Polish and her parents still live in Poland. Poland was experiencing shortages because of COVID long before the Ukrainian conflict started. Now Poland has welcomed Ukrainian refugees to stay with them. My friend's parents are having 2 Ukrainian families move in with them. Well, its just the women and children. The men age 16 yo and older are required to stay and fight. My friend said her parents are reporting even worse shortages and asked if we could start sending things over. We started shipping diapers, pajamas, underwear and sanitary products over to Poland, to her dad (who then takes it to a local aid office) to help ease the situation in their town. But my friend said to get the word out to support the Red Cross which has been actively helping with supplies in Poland. I think Poland has offered to accept a million or more refugees. I'm not sure of the exact number. Just wanted to pass along this opportunity to help.

[keh602]

Thank you for this. I've been wondering what we could do.

[ang79]

Our family is collecting supplies as well as sending monetary donation through UMCORP for Ukraine. DH thought it made more sense to just send the money, but I felt the girls may feel like they are helping more if we sent actual supplies (they are asking for travel toiletries, flashlights, batteries, first aid supplies, and new blankets and clothing).


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[gatorsmom]

Our family is collecting supplies as well as sending monetary donation through UMCORP for Ukraine. DH thought it made more sense to just send the money, but I felt the girls may feel like they are helping more if we sent actual supplies (they are asking for travel toiletries, flashlights, batteries, first aid supplies, and new blankets and clothing).


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Not only does it help more to send the supplies, the supplies are just not available to purchase there. Many of the moms in our community offered to give money but my friend said her parents would probably ask her to use it to purchase the goods and send them over. Fortunately she has a Polish friend in Chicago who owns a small transportation company and is willing to help her reduce the cost of shipping supplies over there. Those big boxes of diapers are so expensive to ship.

[icunurse]

I have been donating to World Central Kitchen. They provide hot meals around the world to people who need them. They have a great score on charity navigator. Chef Jose Andes runs it and they are currently doing big work to help the refugees. They also use local kitchens to prepare the food, so they benefit, too.

I have also donated to a group run by a doctor that I have worked with. He and his groups of doctors, nurses, etc travel to areas of war and provide aid. They are well-recognized and do amazing work. His recent FB posts show them on the ground in Ukraine. I always thought he was a great doctor, but when I discovered a couple years ago about his group….complete respect.

[gatorsmom]

I have been donating to World Central Kitchen. They provide hot meals around the world to people who need them. They have a great score on charity navigator. Chef Jose Andes runs it and they are currently doing big work to help the refugees. They also use local kitchens to prepare the food, so they benefit, too.

I have also donated to a group run by a doctor that I have worked with. He and his groups of doctors, nurses, etc travel to areas of war and provide aid. They are well-recognized and do amazing work. His recent FB posts show them on the ground in Ukraine. I always thought he was a great doctor, but when I discovered a couple years ago about his group….complete respect.

Would you mind sharing the name of the group of doctors? There are many doctors and healthcare workers in our local group of friends as well as DD's Boy Scout troop. I bet they would feel drawn to donate to doctors in the midst of the war zone.

[icunurse]

Would you mind sharing the name of the group of doctors? There are many doctors and healthcare workers in our local group of friends as well as DD's Boy Scout troop. I bet they would feel drawn to donate to doctors in the midst of the war zone.

I will PM you. Thanks!

[bisous]

Not only does it help more to send the supplies, the supplies are just not available to purchase there. Many of the moms in our community offered to give money but my friend said her parents would probably ask her to use it to purchase the goods and send them over. Fortunately she has a Polish friend in Chicago who owns a small transportation company and is willing to help her reduce the cost of shipping supplies over there. Those big boxes of diapers are so expensive to ship.

That's really interesting to me and I'm glad that you shared this. In prior drives I feel like actual stuff has been looked down upon because sending money is more effective but due to all the disruption that may no longer be the case.

[jgenie]

Thank you so much for sharing. I’ve been meaning to ask where to donate to make the biggest impact.

Gatorsmon - would you mind serving as a go between to your friend via PM? Saving on shipping costs would mean more goods could be purchased.

Icunurse - would you mind sharing info on the doctor group?


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[Globetrotter]

That's really interesting to me and I'm glad that you shared this. In prior drives I feel like actual stuff has been looked down upon because sending money is more effective but due to all the disruption that may no longer be the case.

wow I had not considered that..