Humanitarian aid for Ukrainians

My name is Kristina St. John and I am organizing this fundraiser in Canada to support our team assisting with humanitarian efforts for the crisis in Ukraine. Here is our story:

 

We are Dr. Diana Marcano and Brad Retelback, a husband and wife team trying to do our part with the humanitarian crisis at the Polish/Ukrainian border. We are a Canadian/German couple who moved to Poland from Edmonton, AB last August. We could not have imagined that we would find ourselves in the middle of this. In February, we went on a short trip to Lviv, Ukraine as a show of support to their devastated tourism industry. The day after returning to Poland, the invasion began. We immediately reached out to friends in Edmonton to offer our help to the relatives that we knew they had in Kyiv. They accepted our offer and we picked up 5 family members at the Ukraine/Poland border on March 7 and drove them across the country to the city of Poznań, Poland. The next day, we received a call from a local NGO where Brad had been taking Polish language classes. They knew about our trip and asked if we could do another. So Brad took the van we had rented and drove to a remote crossing in the southeast corner of Poland and picked up a family of 6 who needed help getting to Poznań. Diana stayed behind to assist the first family. This is how it began. We have now temporarily relocated close to the Polish border with Ukraine and rented a larger van to see if there were more families that could use our help. We discovered that the need is great and in the first few days have picked up and transported members of 4 more families to where they needed to go. So far, we have picked up a total of 27 people from border crossings at Dołhobyczow and Kroscienko - Smolnica as well as refugee centers in Przemyśl and Korzcowa. We have crisscrossed Poland a few times now to the tune of between 6500 & 7000 kms. It's impossible to describe the trauma etched in the eyes these innocent people, mostly mothers with their children.

 

We started out thinking that it would just be the first 2 families and we were more than happy to cover all the costs ourselves. Some kindhearted people back in Canada discovered what was happening with us and asked if they could help, which we accepted because we knew it would allow us to do more. We want to continue to help people reunite with relatives living outside Ukraine. Additionally, we are intending to get humanitarian aid directly into Ukraine. We have been told that there is a great need for food, warm clothing, and medical supplies. We are currently sourcing out these supplies and will purchase and deliver them to those who can see they reach their intended final destination. We have found 2 entities that are able to travel back and forth across the border delivering supplies to Kharkiv and Kyiv.

 

All proceeds will go to transportation expenses, temporary accomodations and humanitarian aid supplies. We will provide updates as things evolve and time allows. Thank you in advance for your kind support.

 

Diana and Brad