Freelance journalist Séamus O’Hanlon has joined a group of volunteers setting off for Ukraine to deliver aid this morning. This is the first of his daily updates.
Months of preparation and generous donations have led to today – the first direct aid trip to Ukraine of 2024 by the Harwich Ukraine Support Project (HUSP), TEECH, and UK AID. As an aid worker and as a freelance journalist, I will be reporting on the trip, which will directly give aid including carrier-cots and medical supplies to mothers, children, and other vulnerable people in the Chernihiv district.
My first introduction to the Harwich Ukraine Support Project was through the Oddfellows – a social club and fundraising network. The Bury St Edmunds & Colchester District Lodge Oddfellows last December had raised £2.5k in baby items including blankets and nappies as well as a variety of goods for mothers.
I was reminded of this at 4am this morning when driving to Diana Randell’s house, the meeting point for the Colchester-based volunteers – which was just me. Diana, Oddfellows secretary, had made sure Tony Elliston, chairman of HUSP, was at the Oddfellows event I was covering last year. This was so I could hear from the source how donations really mattered – to better understand the story. This morning Diana was extremely hospitable, giving me my departing cup of tea, as well as boxed-up lunches for all nine volunteers.
I will be reporting first-hand how the aid donated by the Oddfellows, and the other thoughtful and generous people across Harwich and Essex, can help change the situation of people in dire need. This will be the full story on the ground. Charting the carrier-cot’s journey from considerately collected items in someone’s house to being cherished by a brave mother and her child in a village on the outskirts of Chernihiv, who very likely have no home at all due to air strikes. The volunteers I am with, all men nearing and above retirement, choose and want to go to the hard-to-reach places. The forgotten people who I also want to highlight.
Travelling with me today on what has been a long day – there were two delays in Harwich and near the Eurotunnel – is Tony Elliston and John Williams. For John – who sang Jonny Cash’sThe long black veil in a traffic jam near Brussels a few minutes ago – this is going to be his second trip to Ukraine. He said his mum is still worried about him going to a war zone, but he is experienced with this type of charity work. John has delivered aid yearly to Moldova since 2017 with TEECH, as well as to Kosovo for six years before.
John’s favourite thing about going to Ukraine was seeing “downtrodden people smile” and bringing even “a little bit of happiness”. Having only recently got his pension, John has spent money on his trips saying if “you don’t do it, you feel like you are letting someone down” which he adds is not an easy concept to explain.
As of writing, I am in Belgium, and it is now expected for us to get to our first night stay in Germany pretty much on time! A few detours but very much on track.
The Harwich Ukraine Support Project is sending six and a half tonnes of aid on this trip. While together with TEECH and UK aid, they have already sent about 300 tonnes since the war began.
Follow Séamus O’Hanlon on TikTok for more updates and on here for more daily dispatches and other articles.
