Thessaloniki in a human aid chain for Ukraine
The Municipality of Thessaloniki has so far sent more than 40 tons of humanitarian aid to parts of Ukraine, with the offer of the citizens and the city of the city being immediate and valuable, as well as the daily help of volunteers who sacrifice hours from their families to are there to pack packages for people experiencing the war in Ukraine for over two weeks now.
The initiative of the Municipality of Thessaloniki that was announced to the Municipal Council last Monday, took shape just the next day where from the morning of Tuesday, March 1, the authorized Civil Protection Vassilis Moussidis coordinated the teams and the process of collecting necessities in the Foyer of the City Hall with groups of volunteers, mainly Ukrainians living in Thessaloniki, but also volunteers and employees of the Municipality who devoted themselves to the mission of humanitarian aid.
Natalia is from Ukraine. She is a young woman who came to Greece eight years ago and lives in Thessaloniki with her Greek wife and child. From the first day it was announced by the Municipality of Thessaloniki that they are organizing this action for her homeland, she was sure that this was the opportunity to help her country.
«We make groups through social media, we are around 60 people that one can be in the morning, another can be at noon and another in the afternoon or on the weekend and somehow we arrange them among ourselves so that someone is always there.
With all that is happening I can not stay home. My child goes and gets it other than school so I can be here. And my husband helps me a lot to be here»
Two large trucks and 3 buses with packages of more than 40 tons of humanitarian aid have already left the city to the cities of Lviv, Kyiv, Odessa, Chernivtsi, Tsornomoro and Kozen.
«have already received. They send us photos. They make packages of medicines and send them to the army. To tell you the truth, the first packages that left for Ukraine and arrived, when the girls from there sent us photos, were on their knees. In this way they wanted to thank us for the help. There is an immediate need for things there. They need everything. Think that the people who leave their home are with almost nothing. With a pair of pants, a jacket and their IDs they leave.Says Natalia, who on the one hand thinks of every Ukrainian but on the other, her voice breaks when she talks to me about her family that remains in Ukraine.
«I’m from Western Ukraine, from Ternopil and they still do not drop bombs there. It is close to Lviv. Everyone from central and eastern Ukraine now passes through the west. Others stay there and wait for some time to return to Kyiv and others leave the country. I know that we had people from Donetsk, from Mariupol, from Kharkiv that no longer exists and many do not have somewhere to return immediately. So people go out and go to the borders.
My whole family is there, no one came. No one left because there is no immediate danger and you must know someone to stay to support the situation. He wants people. Even we here who collect things when someone has to pick them up and manage them. Someone has to cook or someone has to help immigrants.
We have things and when they get there to the centers some others take them and distribute them according to the needs of the people.
My mom keeps telling me “my love this will end a little, I am not leaving my home and my homeland”. We have high hopes for Easter, to go to mine and celebrate peace and Easter together. “Because this must not go any further, it must stop quickly.”
The items are collected at the City Hall of Thessaloniki on a 24-hour basis. The next day, groups of volunteers categorize items that they value as worth leaving and what in poor condition, so as not to take up unnecessary space on buses, items that will not be used when they arrive in Ukraine. Great attention is paid to the expiration days of medicines and food and they are then packaged by category. Antibiotics come in one box, anti-inflammatory ones in another, gauze, alcohol and so on.
After the boxes are closed, it is written on, in Ukrainian and English, what each box contains, the logo of the Municipality of Thessaloniki is placed and it is prepared for shipment. Depending on the volume, from the next up to two or three days, he receives the packages of a bus and leaves directly for Ukraine.
«The biggest need is for drugs right now. There are three categories in the items, medicines, food and clothes that we put in this category and things that are for children as they always are. Clothes for men, women, children, shoes, blankets, quilts, towels as there is a great need for items such as toothbrushes and sanitary napkins for women.
Fortunately, we are covered by clothes because people bring them. We are now asking for more medicine, food, basic necessities and survival items such as flashlights, batteries or small rugs.
As humanitarian aid we can send neither helmet nor protective vests. Another procedure is needed for this. But if there is someone who can help in such things we are open to direct him.Says Natalia.
The items collected, according to the Municipality of Thessaloniki, are indicative of the following:
- Medical supplies (anti-inflammatory, gauze, bandages, first aid kits, alcohol, saline, etc.)
- Warm clothes for children and adults
- Quilts and bed linen
- Baby care items (diapers, etc.)
- Baby food and baby milk
- Personal hygiene items
- Milk and long lasting food
- Canned food
- Cereals, nuts
The response of the common people, according to the Ukrainian volunteer is huge and her gratitude for each of them is greater.
«It is not only the Ukrainians who help us. Pontians, Russians, Greeks, English and Belarusians are also coming. And Georgians. They come and bring us things and support us. Here in the municipality of Thessaloniki but also in Aristotelous square. They come with flags and they know very well what it is because they have gone through it. too much support from Thessaloniki. No matter how many times I say thank you it will not be enough. Because both Thessaloniki and all of Greece make a great effort to help us. In the Municipality here, they also bring from other Municipalities. They brought, say, from the Municipality of Thermaikos. My in-laws live in Thassos and every summer we go there. Now we are waiting for the Municipality of Thassos to send us its packages. I know that they gather on other islands as well.»
According to the Municipality of Thessaloniki, so far the Municipality of Mytilene and the Municipality of Komotini have sent their own humanitarian aid to Thessaloniki, while they receive daily calls from other Municipalities wishing to send packages so that they can leave for Ukraine together on the next days.
A typical moment of these days but also an indication of the offer of the citizens with what they have and in whatever way they can offer, was an old woman who knitted the woolen socks for the civilians in Ukraine and took them to the City Hall to send them. The most intense emotional moment, however, according to the volunteers we spoke to and full of satisfaction for what they are doing, was when I saw the photos from Ukraine and among what they received were grandma’s woolen socks…
«They ask me these days what city I am from and now my answer is that I am from all over UkraineSays Natalia. «Today I am from Lviv to Donetsk. I am in pain for every human being for every soul. For all this world that has their lives. I see what is happening in Mariupol and there are no words. No excuses. That’s why we work non-stop here, to help as much as we can. For our people. And all this must stop.»
«There was danger and we all knew it but no one could have imagined that there would only be war. All these days of war, what I am saying is that my country is not only in pain during these 16 days. War in Ukraine takes place 8 years. All these years full of provocations. We always had in mind but no one could believe that such a thing would happen.
Many lies are circulating and let our people be small and Russia is a great power, know that it is still strong.
Now 2 million people have crossed the border and Europe is waiting for another three because he says in total they estimate that it will be in the five million people who will leave Ukraine. The number is horrible. The first people who arrived in Greece were mainly those who had relatives and their own people here. Now, slowly, people who have no one are moving beyond the borders. And there was nothing left for them. It’s something I can not describe…»
According to Natalia, a second point that offers great work these days, is Monastery in the Holy Monastery of Vlatadawhere «We collect things and the immigrants who have already come to Thessaloniki or the surrounding areas, can go and get clothes, food and medicine because we know very well how difficult it is to come to a foreign country and not even have the basics.»
The Municipality of Thessaloniki was probably the first Municipality in the country to organize this huge and important chain of aid for the people of Ukraine, together with the Ukrainian Consulate and the Pharmacists of the World, continuing to collect items and coordinate the largest mission it has while the responsible deputy mayor for Social Policy Socrates Demitriadis, in March it is estimated that the work for the creation of five rooms, which will be done in an independent space housing the Homeless Dormitory and will have the opportunity to become 30 refugees, will be completed. mostly women with their children while other actions are planned in this direction.
«The Municipality of Thessaloniki gave us great support. And huge helpNatalia tells me just before I leave her to continue packing boxes.
«We will continue for as long as we ask for help and at the moment there is a huge need. May all this end soon. Every day you know, in every message that comes to my phone, I hope to open up and write that the war is over…»
See also:
Ukraine: The drama of a country in time