Safe Passage Ukraine

Aim

Direct support, transport and assistance for Ukrainian refugees fleeing war to Poland and beyond, as well as their communities left behind

(Please follow us on Facebook or Instagram @safepassageukraine for more information/updates)

Following our mission in March to support Ukrainian refugees at the Dorohusk/Chelm border in Poland, we (Tim Flint and Henry Irvine) are returning to Poland on 17th April to help even more people in need crossing the Ukrainian border. We are also continuing to provide some targeted assistance to refugees previously helped and their communities back in Ukraine (please see below for example).

With your donations we will work around the clock to provide:

• Free minibus transport for refugees from the border to anywhere within Poland
• Necessities such as food/drink, clothing, toiletries/sanitary items etc.
• Children's books, colouring, toys and anything to put smiles on exhausted faces
• Temporary accommodation
• Assistance with any onward logistics (e.g. trains, flights, buses etc.)
• Moral support and signposting using the contacts we've gained
• Replenishment of refugee reception facilities with bulk purchase of any items required
• Any other assistance we can see that is required for those in need or targeted ongoing support for specific refugees/communities in real need

We are not a charity or business, just two people taking time off work and desperate to help out in this awful situation.  Tim is a self employed father of two small children and builds furniture from reclaimed wood for a living. Henry works for the RNLI managing the lifeguarded beaches within the South West. 

Our mission to Poland in March was very successful, although it was extremely hard to walk away as there are so many people in need of help (literally millions) and the amazing response of countries like Poland is being utterly swamped. Thanks to your donations (over £25,000!) we provided direct assistance to 78 refugees; transporting them to safety (driving 5,495km/3,414miles in the process!), providing accommodation, booking onward flights/trains/buses, supplying food/drink and many other important provisions. On many return journeys to the border we also purchased items in bulk to re-supply refugee reception centres with what they’d asked us for, not just what we thought they needed. For each of these people we know we were able to offer so much of the practical assistance and care they required at that moment. Of this we are immensely proud and know there’s nothing more we could have done at the time (our longest day was 22 hours straight!).

Furthermore, we have kept in contact with many of the people we helped and have been able to provide some targeted ongoing assistance to them and their communities left behind. An example of this is Alla and her young family, who were the very first people we helped at the border on 11th March. She is from the rural village of Slovechne, NW of Kyiv close to the border with Belarus and c.80 miles west of Chernobyl. Since the withdrawal of Russian forces in the area and end of heavy fighting all around the village is yet to receive any outside aid/assistance. A range of basic provisions are urgently needed and thanks to previous donations we are currently very busy organising a van load of supplies in Poland to cross the border and then be transported directly to Slovechne by Alla's husband (who is in the territorial defence forces and cannot leave Ukraine). This could be the first of several needed and we will do all we can to provide as much support as possible.

Any money left over from our mission will be donated to World Central Kitchen, a charity we have come in to contact with in Poland and have seen the awesome work they're doing to feed those in need, both inside Ukraine (they were among the first outside aid workers in to Bucha following its liberation) and in neighbouring countries.

Thank you for your support and for sharing what we're doing, it offers a glimmer of light in an otherwise very dark situation and we have already witnessed first hand the amazing impact the support that these donations enable us to provide.

A couple photos below from our March mission, there are many more photos and stories on Facebook/Instagram:

This project successfully funded on 6th May 2022