Supporting Ukraine

Like many people around the world, we have been distressed to see the events taking place in Ukraine and wanted to ensure we were playing our part to help the people of Ukraine.

Together with our colleagues' help, we have raised £1,119 for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s 15 leading UK aid charities to help those in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries to provide food, water, shelter and medical assistance.

We promised that we would match this and having researched how we could best make a donation that would reach the people of Ukraine quickly, together with our sister company GuidingLight Investments and led by Alan Jackson, we have donated £30,000 to the Villages for Ukraine crowdfunding appeal.

Set up in March 2022 by Fynn Watt, at 20 years old, the Villages for Ukraine initiative sees Fynn and other volunteers deliver aid and supplies  (such as food, water and medicines) to the people of Ukraine. Fynn now has 14 operational vehicles in Ukraine, including 3 ambulances and 2 4x4 search and rescue vehicles. Fynn and his volunteers are evacuating people from regions like Bakhmut, Kramatorsk, and Slovyansk. Thunderbird 3, a van sponsored by Intercity, now resides in Kharkiv, Ukraine and is used to deliver supplies to previously Russian-occupied areas or heavily affected regions.

Fynn summarises his amazing work in the first three months of being in operation with the following:

"I've been travelling to Warsaw refugee centres for a project that brought 91 Ukrainians back to the UK, other Polish, Austrian, Ukrainian and French refugee centres to support and provide. We've shuttled tonnes of aid thousands of miles, evacuated families, provided vehicles for use across Ukraine, transported SpaceX Starlink drones, organised an evacuation coach of 51 women and children from Ukraine to Krakow, bought, delivered and built a Ukrainian refugee shelter's bunk beds, donated to other charities here in Ukraine, and many more little smiles along the way. I want to continue this until we're needed no more."

HOMES FOR UKRAINE

One of our colleagues and their family are hosting a Ukrainian family to stay for about 12 months as part of the Homes for Ukraine Government scheme.

Valentyna and her daughters Nadya (aged 25) and Vika (aged 12) will have their own home to start re-building their lives. They recently arrived at their new home from their place of refuge in Poland. Valentyna leaves her husband behind in Kyiv where he is part of the army defending Kyiv. Intercity has helped get their new home setup for their arrival by providing:

• 2 x mobile phones
• A broadband connection
• A laptop, monitor, keyboard and mouse
• A £500 Next voucher for clothes

Nadya spoke about her journey to her UK home:

"The war began on February 24. On February 25, I went on duty to the hospital and never returned home. I was in the hospital all the time. It was not possible to return home. I couldn't talk to my mother on the phone either, because nothing could be heard because of the explosions. We lived in such conditions. We didn't want to go until we were the last ones. But the time came when we had no choice. I just walked from the hospital to the station under the explosions. I took with me documents, a laptop, a sports suit that was in the hospital, and some dry food. There is no road left to my house. My mom and sister had to flee the forest on foot. We thought it would be another week and we would be back. We were in Poland at that time. We then we went to Germany. I contacted Leo (an anaesthesiologist in Southampton Hospital) and he helped find you."

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT?

If you'd like to help out Villages for Ukraine, you can donate to Fynn's JustGiving here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/fynn-ukraine