A team from Langford has just returned from a successful humanitarian mission to Ukraine. The team, consisting of retired Langford fire chief Bob Beckett, Sooke school board chair Ravi Parmar and Victoria Hand Project founder spent nearly a week in the country.
Getting into Ukraine is no simple task right now. That's especially true for people carrying 18 oversized hockey bags full of badly needed humanitarian aid and supplies.
The team flew into Warsaw, Poland, before driving four hours to the Ukrainian border.
Crossing into the country, military road checks are everywhere. Once day turns to night, an eerie feeling begins to set in.
The team's first destination was the city of Lutsk in Ukraine's west. A midnight curfew is in place, and due to constant Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, energy is being rationed, leading to almost blackout conditions.
Beckett and Parmar met with Nataliia Krustko from the Ukrainian non-profit Medicine In Action. It’s a reunion of a partnership that began in June when the team first travelled to Lutsk to provide much-needed food aid to displaced people from other parts of Ukraine.
“As a result of the first trip, we fed over 81,000 displaced women and children in Ukraine and I think that was a great start,” said Beckett.
The latest trip was multifaceted, aiming to provide medical supplies to a hospital system currently overwhelmed by wounded soldiers from the front lines, as well as provide rescue equipment to underfunded fire departments and create a partnership between students in the Sooke School District and those in the Ukrainian system.
“I just have this belief that as a system we need to do a better job supporting our students to becoming these global citizens,” said Parmar. “Becoming good stewards of not only their community, their province, their country, but the entire world.”
A series of CTV News Vancouver Island reports beginning next week will show in more detail the life-saving aid that was delivered during the mission, along with the other work the team accomplished.
