The circa 150 boxes with donations arrived in the Polish capital city of Warsaw last Monday, thanks to the transport company of a family member of one of the two initiators of the initiative, the Polish UM students Alexander van Vugt and Filip Radzikowski. A local go-between will take care of the distribution to the border-crossings with Ukraine “where help is needed most”, said Van Vugt.
In the meantime, collections are continuing in Maastricht. Since the dispatching of the first load, dozens of boxes with donations have been collected again. The co-ordination of the actions has now been taken over by the Students For Ukraine organisation, which was set up by a student from Delft two weeks ago and is now active in several cities, including Leiden, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Ghent.
In co-operation with Ukraine Emergency Appeal The Netherlands, this student initiative has already sent two shipments with a combined total of about 2,500 boxes with relief supplies to Ukraine. The two organisations work together with the Ukrainian, Polish and Bulgarian Red Cross, who take care of local distribution. The donations collected in Maastricht will from now be shared with Students For Ukraine.
The number of collection points at the UM has meanwhile been expanded to four: along with the original location in Randwyck, goods can now also be delivered to three places in the city centre (see box below).