Despair and hopelessness is the path I have to choose not to go down each day of this war. Despite what I see on the news, each day I magic hope out of thin air. I hope and pray that somehow someone or something powerful will intervene and stop the avalanche of the distraught lost children making their own way out of Ukraine on trains, the rotting corpses of the dead in the streets, the pictures of the dead children on google search I don't want to see. I switch off this maddening stream of sickening worry and numbing despair. And I talk to people about how I want to help. Some show understanding about what I am trying to do and some don't. Some tell me there are other causes that sound more official that are safer to donate to. But some listen, like really listen. And say 'what can I do to help?' And somehow we push each other along step by step away from that black feeling, away from doing nothing and from feeling powerless.
The people on the other side of the Ukrainian border need us not to despair. They need us not to feel powerless. They need us not to feel that it is futile to act because Putin's army is too powerful and murderous, his gas supply and his oligarchs’ millions are too hard to say no to. That in itself would guarantee a win to those whose teeth are bared, who lie, manipulate, deceive, and flex their bigger muscles.
I am appealing to you directly here now because even though I don’t know you and I will never meet you, we are united in choosing to care, to help, to act and do what we can. This is what I must do - I must raise ten thousand pounds so a second-hand vehicle can be used to transport the wounded away from the shelling and the bombing, to a place where they can receive medical help. And I know that just like positive messages of ‘what can I do to help?’ can build my confidence to get this project together, so can 10k be built out of individual donations of whatever each person or organisation is able to give.
And I know it can happen because just look at what incredible things have happened already – thanks to the kind people of Hastings and my friends we raised enough money to send two deliveries of lifesaving medical equipment to Ukraine. Thanks to the parents of the school my children go to, and the staff at the college I am at, as well as the aforementioned kind people of Hastings, a full van of donations of toiletries, children’s and adult’s clothing, toys and activities for children, even pet food (my driving instructor said he’s seen people with dogs on the news) have been delivered to the Ukrainian-Polish border this week by my ex-partner. Several lorries have just gone /are just about to go organised by Hastings Aid for Ukrainian Refugees. Thanks to the head of my children’s school, the resources I made telling primary school children about what kind of place Ukraine is and what and why is happening there, are available to all primary school children in Hastings. Thanks to the CEO of the East Sussex College Group, the college students will be able to speak to Ukrainian students via a live link. These are amazing things and show how much we can do if we allow ourselves to look at the world with more kindness and curiosity than we are used to doing.
And I believe we can come together united by this campaign among many others and provide a passage to safety for those who would otherwise perish from their injuries.
Only you know what and how much you can do to help. I am asking you to help with what you can – donate what you can, spread the word with whomever you can. Organise, link up with other people, say an encouraging word. The kindness that propels us to act is a tougher building material than any show of military strength because strength for the sake of power is dead inside.
‘We must love one another or die’
W.H. Auden