With the war still raging in Ukraine, Christmas for many provides a slither of hope and normality to distract from the everyday horrors the Ukrainian people face.
However, due to the increase in poverty caused by the war, many families will not be able to properly enjoy Christmas, with the idea of decorations, presents, or even a proper meal seeming an impossibility.
We at Vans Without Borders will be doing everything we can to help the Ukrainian people, especially children, celebrate Christmas this year. We have already sent pallets of Christmas boxes and toys, alongside essential aid to Ukraine, but need your help to fund their distribution.
The Christmas boxes will be hand-delivered by our team to Ukrainian children in need and contain an array of supplies including sweets, toys and books.
Last year our Christmas campaign was hugely successful and our team and partners delivered hundreds of Christmas boxes to kids across Ukraine. We hope to make an even greater difference this year.
Alongside this morale booster, our team will continue to bring essential aid to the Ukrainian people to help them cope with this year's brutal Winter - temperatures have already dropped to -5 degrees Celsius.
Due to the war preventing normal de-icing procedures, the roads, particularly in the East and South, have become incredibly dangerous, restricting supplies that can reach remote communities on the frontline.
Thus, our team must act quickly to deliver our supplies in Ukraine to communities and organisations on the frontlines before the weather worsens further and potentially cuts them off from receiving much needed relief.
Our team is also preparing for another mission in the New Year to deliver aid to communities under siege from the Russian war machine. The residents who remain in the villages on the frontline tend to be elderly and unable to evacuate these areas due to being in a weak physical condition, so they need all the support they can receive to continue surviving.
This unfortunately is not a cheap operation as we have to buy new 4x4s and kit them out for the Winter. We have donated all of our other vehicles - including our flagship van - to the Ukrainian army, as they needed them more than us to save and protect innocent lives. We will donate any new vehicles we purchase at the end of our trip as well.
Please help us help the people of Ukraine.
Since we launched in April 2022, thanks to your generosity, the Vans Without Borders team has helped thousands of vulnerable Ukrainians, including those stuck in frontline areas. The team has risked their lives on multiple occasions to ensure that even those Ukrainians in the most hostile areas have what they need to survive the war.
Our life-saving work has been featured in The Telegraph, The Sun, on GB News, the BBC, ITV News, The Express, Portsmouth News and other local media outlets.