By Federica Gruppioni | Project officer
Last February Dino Montanari, director of IBO Italia and Federica Gruppioni, project officer went to Ukraine to visit the activities carried out with the local partner Dobri Liudi Bukovinu.
“We stayed for a few days, just enough to meet the project partners and friends who live there every day, both Italian and Ukrainian with whom we collaborate. These have been intense days that have allowed us to see and touch the importance of this project with our own hands.
We first arrived in the city of Suceava in Romania and from there with a van we reached Cernivtsi in Ukraine. The distance between the two cities is very short, just over 80 kilometres. As soon as we got off the bus we heard the sound of sirens.
But looking around us everything was apparently normal. People kept going in and out of the supermarket, and mothers went around with strollers.
The situation in the area where we were, hundreds of kilometers away from the eastern area of the front, was all in all calm. Quiet but in an atmosphere of abnormality. Giant posters in the streets with photos of those who died in the war, sirens warning people to reach shelters - now out of habit ignored -, soldiers on the streets, checkpoints, power generators constantly switched on to guarantee energy electric. People have gotten used to all this by now and live their lives going to work and school, walking, going out at night until curfew.
We met the people who collaborate with the local association, from those who prepare food, blankets and medicine parcels to those who follow people for their psychological recovery, from those who bring the material to the villages where the displaced people live in the areas of war to those who follow the activities in the office.
We were able to follow some distributions of blankets in two villages where several displaced people live. During the distribution, people compiled a list to indicate their city of origin, places sadly known because of this war: Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolayiv, Zaporizhia.
Thousands of people have lost everything: their homes, jobs and often even family members. The local association tries to alleviate their suffering. And it also works for children, orphans and fragile people (elderly and disabled) who already lived in a condition of extreme precariousness before the war.
Last February 24th was the sad one-year anniversary of this terrible war. Because all wars are terrible. However, the people we met remembered that the war started in 2014.
Among many things that have struck us, there is certainly the lack of prospect of a short term conclusion of this conflict. You start thinking about a life away from your home. Because something has to be done, you can't wait forever.
Thanks to the support of the funds sent, in addition to the distribution of food, medicines, health supplies, winterization, psycho-social activities have been activated with mothers and children.
And precisely to relieve the burden of mothers and also allow them to work, the project will go on both with material support and with playful-recreational activities for the children. Recreational activities will be very important in the summer, when school is over and children will have a lot of time to fill, often in places far from the main centers and where there is no activity for them.
We continue with our commitment. Thanks for your support.
Let's continue together to give a smile.
By Federica Gruppioni | Project officer
By Amos Basile | Community Service Volunteer
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