To support the people of Ukraine, Digby Furneaux has started up a humanitarian group – Ukraine Sunflower Aid. This group was set up following a meeting at Digby’s pub, The Swan, in Midhurst when people got together to discuss ways to help the Ukrainian people.
The group’s first fleet of van driving volunteers, including two RNLI Rye Harbour crew members, Brendan Towner and Paul Ramsey, were waved off from Winchelsea by Amy and Debbie, their partners, and Kt and Martin Bruce from the Harbour who wished them the very best of luck for the journey.
Digby said that the main problem has been that hundreds of people who have set off are being stopped by customs officials. Some have been turned away and some are still at ports after three days. After hearing about these difficulties, Digby set about ensuring that all the customs forms were filled out with great care and double-checked to ensure that the volunteers have a safe and smooth passage.
Update: Tuesday night.
The convoy of vans had reached Poland and after 29.5 hours of driving with stops only for refreshment and diesel and changing driver. They had one night in a hotel and then on Wednesday they unload the vans and began the 29.5 hours of driving back. This was a remarkable achievement and there are plans to return in two weeks’ time.
The charity has raised over £60,000 so far and if you want to donate the link is below.
These humanitarian projects and the persons who organise them deserve our support nd praise and I’m rather surprised at the lack of comment here. I no longer live in the Rye area, but my own community has organised similar projects. There has been concern about some of the items on the “wish list”, for example medical-type items, particularly oral medications and other items where an understanding of English is necessary before ingestion or other usage (cleaning materials and other products containing chemicals, etc.).
The conclusion was that it is safer to leave the supply of these items to other Agencies, who can ensure they are passed from and to more competent authorities who are able to address safety-type issues.