Less than a month ago, the Department of Social Education of the MU Faculty of Education initiated a collection of material aid for families affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The proceeds of the collection exceeded all their expectations. An eastbound truck full of clothes, shoes, blankets and non-perishable foods left Brno at the end March.
Usually they sit in classrooms, but on that day several dozens of social education student had something else to do. They were helping to load the items that people from the university as well as others brought to the building in order to help those affected by the fighting in Ukraine. They handled possibly hundreds of bags full of things.
“There are about thirty more full elevators of stuff still there," said one of the students after she came from the fourth floor, where the department is located, to the ground floor with the first load of items. Hence the students gave up on the elevators and started simply carrying the stuff on stairs.
“The support for Ukraine is touching; people were bringing full suitcases of clothing and all kinds of often brand new things. Various smaller collections in villages were organized, people approached traders and also the participation of students was extraordinary," described the head of the department Lenka Gulová who organized the collection.
The idea originated as a reaction to the current news coming from a country where social educators have many friends with whom they cooperate on joint projects.
The aid from Brno travels to the Mykolaiv Oblast, to where refugees from Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk areas have moved. According to the current information, there are about 8600 of them in the area. Although the political representation of the region tried to secure temporary housing and the chance for the children to go to school, it has not been able to fully take care of the refugees and hence collections offer a good solution.
“The people mostly left their homes with only the bare essentials and some basic clothes with which they obviously cannot last long. Therefore, we are looking for things elsewhere," says Valentyna Lyulya from the Association for International Affairs in Prague, who is one of the initiators of the campaign and helps to organize it.
Transporting the items to Ukraine is practically and financially secured by the Ukrainian Trade Union, an organization of Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic, while the person responsible is Taras Kostuyk. According to Lyulya, help of people from foreign countries is priceless. Very active are countries of the former Soviet Union, mainly the Baltic countries, but also Poland and the Czech Republic.
“The support of the NGO People in Need is great for us since they work directly in the area and know exactly what is needed."