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Help for Ukraine

Member

Rianne Kamphuisen

Local organization

JCI Gouda

National organization

Netherlands

Member

Rianne Kamphuisen

Duration

From April 30 to May 25, 2022

People impacted

5000

Sustainable Development Goal

Good Health and Well-Being

Development stage

Health and Wellness

Purpose

Helping the people affected by the war in Ukraine

Overview

Within JCI the Netherlands over 30 chapters have collected goods / food and money (up to this day more than €34.500,00 and the crowdfunding is still going on), the goods and food have been collected in several places in the Netherlands from where it was shipped to one main hub where the trucks where filled and send on transport to Romania) the goods/food have been transported to the warehouse run by JCI Suceava (JCI Romania) and a local NGO where they have been distributed amongst the Ukrainian refugees in Romania and also we were able to bring goods/food into Ukrain (amongst others to an orphanage that houses more than a 1000 children). There has been intense contact with JCI Suceava so that we were able to ship the most needed goods to Romania and they did not ended up with good they couldn't use.
The money has been used to buy supplies in Romania to help the refugees, think about beds for an orphanage and 4.000 meals.

Actions Taken

Goods distributed in Romania by JCI Suceava amongst the refugees from Ukraine, goods where also brought into Ukraine to help the people there (we sent a full truck of food to a orphanage with more than a 1000 kids).

Goods arriving in the warehouse in Romania and stores in the warehouse

Shipping goods to warehouse in Romania (14 fully loaded trucks in total with more than 250 pallets fully stuffed with goods

Bring goods and food to the main hub in the Netherlands. Goods and food where sorted out on the sub locations so we had 1 sort of item per box, this makes distributing on the actual location easier.

Reached out to the JCI Europe network to get goods into Ukraine. JCI Romania responded they where working with NGA Sange Pentru, this was the start of the warehouse in Romania and the collaboration with JCI Suceava

Setting up the main gathering location offered at no cost by a former member and senator of JCI Netherlands

Start up bank account for fundraising

Open up more than 10 sub-locations in the Netherlands where goods and food can be delivered (where open for several weeks)

Make a communications plan for the members (what they can collect, how to store and where to bring)

Determine which goods are necessary

Establish a taskforce with the following responsibilities: finance, fundraising, partnership, logistics, communications

Schedule a call with the Members of JCI the Netherlands who wanted to help

Results

Our strength is that, with our international network, we moved quickly. Faster than some large NGOs. This has enabled us to meet the need for emergency aid in a short period of time.

Since the start of the national campaign, JCI Netherlands and JCI Romania have been working together. The reason for this is that JCI Romania, by cooperating with a local NGO SÂNGE PENTRU ROMÂNIA, managed to get goods to Ukraine in a safe way. Faster than the Red Cross! There was only one challenge in this; Romania is not around the corner. Nevertheless, we were able to transport 14 full loads to Suceava these transports where offered by several companies, we paid nothing for them. The trucks contained over 250 pallets fully stocked with goods to meet the first necessity of life, think about canned food, baby milk powder, shampoo, soap, diapers, medicine and first aid kits.
All the goods are collected in more than 10 sub locations in the Netherlands and shipped from our main location in Biddinghuizen. This location has gotten help from Ukrainian refugees that were happy to help and do something for the people left behind, they wrote messages of hope and love in Ukrainian and put those in the boxes with the goods.

Initially the crowdfunding was started to pay for the transports, as these were all free in the end we can use a much larger part of the money even more directly and effectively. At this moment we have raised more than €34.500.
In order to help JCI Suceava and the people from Ukraine further we have jointly started to buy goods locally to help the Ukraine. This also stimulates the local economy.

Beds for an orphanage
JCI Rotterdam helped out very quickly with mattresses for the Provita center in Vălenii de Munte (Romania). We were very happy with that! However, more were needed and they also needed beds. With our first donation in March, JCI Romania was able to buy beds and mattresses for children locally. The stories of the caregivers in the center showed that this was very valuable. Many of the children appeared to have developmental delays and were severely traumatized. When airplanes flew over, the children hid in the hallways to protect themselves from the imminent danger. It must have been terrible what they went through. Via the humanitarian corridor they fortunately managed to reach Romania.

Food
JCI Suceava received a donation of 7,500 EURO from us at the end of April for the purchase of food in Romania for the inhabitants and refugees. This week the first batch of 7,392 meals was transferred to Ukraine by their local partner SÂNGE PENTRU ROMÂNIA. This is the first of 3 shipments. JCI Romania expects to purchase and distribute a total of 22,000!!! hot meals through this donation.

We did not submit this award to pat ourselves on the back with what we have achieved, the war that is going on right now is far too serious for that, the humanitarian disaster that is taking place is incalculable.
What we find much more important is that we are able to help people in need. By jointly using our network both nationally and internationally and by joining forces we have been able to achieve so much more than we ever could think about, and that is the strength of JCI! We can be proud of that!

Help for Ukraine and the people from Ukraine will still be necessary in the future! Let's keep on joining forces to achieve this.

Recommendations

- When you are going to do a collection as a local chamber, focus on a few items. Rather collect items of 1 kind than lots of different things.
- Before you start sending the goods, sort everything by item. So pack items per box (for example all the soup together) and write clearly visible on the box what it contains.
- Keep people informed of what you are doing with the goods, this applies to both goods and money.

Contact

Rianne Kamphuisen (JCI Netherlands)

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