Weekly update 9/22

This time it is a difficult task to briefly summarize the events and activities that took place in the past week. Still, I'm making an effort because it's important right now that we make ourselves heard.

The consequences for our foundation of the war unleashed by the evil Putin are great. As Ukraine's neighbor, Romania has become involved in hosting an unprecedented influx of refugees. While the major relief organizations were still busy meeting, our foundation and our local contact persons took immediate action.

Cristi does a very good job in Botosani, receiving support not only from us but also from the people around him and sponsors from several countries.

The distance from Botosani to the border with the Ukraine Siret is only 60 kilometers. The storage depot and the Cristi network is now suddenly also important in the reception and assistance of refugees.

He had a visit from the director and a cameraman from the E.O., they enjoyed a meal at Casa Ioana. Cristi has arranged a translator and for guidance to a border town. Whether anything was included in their reporting on the great work of Cristi and his team I don't know, it was mainly focused on the work of E.O. indeed I think.

Fortunately, we have had a very good relationship with Cristi for many years and support his work wholeheartedly. The current problems are not just over and longer-term help will continue to be needed. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we were able to immediately have Cristi buy blankets, baby food and other urgently needed items.

Every evening he writes a report of everything he experiences, see the link below, it is impressive. Take your time and read the stories about the past week. I had his messages translated by Google.

Here is the link to photos and stories.

After a lot of hassle, two Romanian trucks with trailers were finally available on Wednesday 2 March for loading in Broek op Langedijk. The first has been given the destination Breaza and the second Botosani. Loading two trailers in a day like we do, namely square full, is quite a job. Fortunately, our stock was at a good level, we were able to send a lot of food, this is always important, but now extra.

Here the link to loading for Botosani.

Here the link to pictures of the loading for Breaza.

The truck in Breaza was already unloaded on Friday morning. Imola and Csaba were very pleased with the quality, even the fresh products such as tomatoes and bananas were still in good condition. The distribution will take place among the poor people in the region, for aid to refugees the distance is too great to be effective. At this time of the year, our “target group” is having an extra hard time. The money and food is often gone, it is cold there is no work and the living conditions are bad. Imola also expressed her concern that these people should not be forgotten. They had already been to the care center in Deda with, among other things, the vegetables and bananas. The people there were amazed, for example tomatoes and fresh vegetables in the winter is unusual for them.

There is a new post on Imola and Csaba's blog.

Henk Muller will remain in Romania until April 1, and again sent many photos of aid. We will soon be able to collect seed potatoes again in Slootdorp for the gardens of the people there and Henk can select seed in Breaza that we have received from Co Ligthart. It's good to see that bread baking with Koopmans bread mix that we brought is also continuing.

Here is the link to photos.

Toth Attila from Peris is busy rebuilding the burned-out houses in Peris. An inspired man who does a lot of good work. Due to the price increases in Romania, which are higher rather than lower than in our country, more and more people are getting into trouble. He also took in refugees

Here is the link to photos.

Reghina went to help in the border town of Sighetu Marmației, more than 100 kilometers from her hometown, where refugees also flow over the border.

Ronald Woldhuis and his Phoneo team also pick up people and even bring food into the Ukraine. There is a shelter in Reghin and in Cluj Napoca, I don't know how many people are there now. He has many good plans and ideas. We agreed that he could share his expertise and local knowledge with larger relief organizations. These often have a well-oiled sponsor recruitment department and have a large stock of financial resources. To use these now and in the right way is not as easy as it seems, local expertise is then extremely important. The first steps have been taken by Ronald, we are trying to help him with this quest.

Here is the link to photos.

Not only our foundation, but also Max Veenstra from St. HRIF from Weesp and Jan Pilkes from St. Caritas Ukraina-Holland from de Rijp immediately started sending relief supplies without long meetings.

Jan Pilkes and his team are doing what they can with the Caritas Ukraine-Holland foundation. Jan has the right permits, documents and most importantly the right stable/reliable people in the Ukraine to receive and distribute the relief goods. Two trucks every week I estimate and they keep going. Saturday we transferred some of our stock to theirs in De Rijp.

Max Veenstra of the HRIF Foundation from Weesp, really arranges a lot of transports to his contacts in the Ukraine and Poland. From Weesp 5 trucks, via its partners from Switzerland 6 trucks, from Germany 2 and from France 5 this in the past week. Friday he wrote a short message; i'm tired...

Admirable in my opinion and good to know and work with these people, especially under the current circumstances this is important.

Monday we will load another truck that goes to Botosani and Tuesday the next one with destination Marghita. Three days in a row there are big pick-up jobs. So we can continue for a while.

Jan Valk has set up a food campaign through the motorcycle club MC Promotion. We will also do this in Langedijk, Piet Dijkstra has already set up a campaign in the Allemanskerk. If you think I want to help too. You can hand in at the Dulleweg 20 in Broek op Langedijk every day from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

This is about it, among all the terrible news, the positive is the great willingness of people to help one another, not only here but also in Romania.