Visit of the Parc des Expositions in Avignon, storage location for collections for Ukraine
More than two weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, fundraising is still just as numerous in Vaucluse. It is at the Avignon exhibition center that they are all centralized, under the leadership of Civil Protection and AFUCA. The Franco-Ukrainian association has already made seven trucks, seven others are due to hit the road this week. Volunteers take turns every day to sort the boxes, protect them, stack them and load them onto trucks for the Ukrainian people.
Hall J of the exhibition center is open 7 days a week, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.. Boxes of clothes, blankets, baby diapers, canned goods, medicines, crutches accumulate there. Up to 30 AFUCA volunteers work there, cutter in one hand, large black felt pen in the other. We find Victoria, whose father was born in Russia, or Lilia, a young Ukrainian woman. “I cried for three days in front of my TV, she explains. Then I said to myself thatI had to do something for my people. Since then, I come every day, it helps me keep my spirits up.
AFUCA shares the place with Civil Protection, which instead collects boxes collected by town halls. It then sends them to the regional platform, in Toulon, then towards Strasbourg. It is from Alsace that the Civil Protection convoy will leave, which will join Poland, near the Ukrainian border.
The Avignon exhibition center receives to collect the collections at least for another fortnight. The volunteers specify that there is no more need for clothes. If you wish to donate, favor monetary donations. Better yet, donate your time: AFUCA is always looking for volunteers.