Aid coordinator prepares to visit Ukraine

One of the two forces behind the Mid Argyll Helps Ukraine group is preparing to head off on a journey to the war-torn Eastern European country.

 

Amanda Duffy-Brown, who, with Nikki Thompson, is a co-coordinator of the appeal, will take on a transcontinental journey in March along with fellow Scottish aid volunteers.

 

To date, Mid Argyll Helps Ukraine has sent 14 deliveries of aid, some of which was donated by Kintyre residents, to Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine for further distribution around the conflict-stricken country.

 

Amanda is joining the 'Global Food Train for Ukraine', a networking appeal group set up by another Scottish woman, Helen Will, from Peterhead.

 

The group will distribute humanitarian aid to various areas of Ukraine in a designated 48-seater coach, due to leave Newcastle on a ferry to Amsterdam in The Netherlands, before onward travel to Poland and then Ukraine.

 

They are due to leave on March 16.

 

On the return journey, they will visit a Polish school, set up as a makeshift educational centre for displaced Ukrainian children and, on the way back, the coach will uplift displaced people, families, and their pets, and transport them to the UK.

 

On arrival, each of the volunteers will be responsible for their own group to ensure they arrive safely at their forward destination.

 

Amanda will be supporting her group all the way to Glasgow before returning home to Mid Argyll.

 

"We have worked with Helen Will and her group in the past and this time they were short of volunteers for their visit to Ukraine, so I was asked if I would like to come on board," she said.

 

"It is quite overwhelming, but I feel it is something I need to do after being involved in the humanitarian aid for Ukraine from this side [of the operation].

 

"It is an amazing opportunity to be asked, and it will be very useful for further trips there, to be able to see how aid helps people in the country.

 

"I am looking forward to meeting the people we have been working with this past year, who we haven't met yet.

 

"The coach will head there full of aid and return with displaced people and families seeking to rebuild their lives in the UK."

 

The Global Food Train for Ukraine's GoFundMe page, for those who wish to donate, is at: gofund.me/24c1b154