DIRECT HELP FOR UKRAINIANS

(If you wish to donate in Euros please check this link: https://assets.gogetfunding.com/direct-help-for-ukrainian...)

Hello, we are Maria Kłosińska-Rogacka and Irmina Pacho, two women from Poland, long-lasting friends, a psychologist and a human rights lawyer.

Seeing what is happening in Ukraine and in Poland, we felt a strong urge to help. We spent hours searching for an organization that could benefit from our support. Our scoping led us to Kotuń - a small district in eastern Poland, located close to the Ukrainian border.

The authorities and citizens of Kotuń have been closely partnering with their counterparts in Ukraine - Vesele and Verba districts - since 2017. Now, they are sending their friends money, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, power banks, food, clothes, medical supplies and much more. They are also hosting approx. 150 refugees in their homes and in a school building converted into temporary shelter.

Now, the Kotuń community is running out of money. To continue its support Kotuń critically needs external funds. Therefore, we ask you for your help.

The money that you will donate will go directly to the Kotuń district fire brigade, which together with local authorities is coordinating help.

WHY WE DECIDED TO CHOOSE KOTUŃ OVER OTHER ORGANIZATIONS?

1. They are committed to providing continuous support to their Ukrainian friends whom they have known for years.
2. They are in close contact with Vesele and Verba districts to address their current and most pressing needs.
3. The support is more personal and crafted to the needs of refugees and people trapped in war theatre. It reflects a long-standing partnership and deep solidarity, which has additional psychological benefits. Kotuń has their back.

If you want to read more about Kotuń, Verba and Vesele districts as well as the refugee house please see below.

We thank you for any support you can provide – and ask if you can share it to create awareness.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INFORMATION FROM THE KOTUN COMMUNITY:

Over the years, our local community organized around a volunteer fire brigade and the local authorities in Kotuń (Poland) has developed a long standing partnership with two districts in Ukraine: Vesele and Verba. We have built well established friendship between our regions through organizing youth exchange and cultural programmes. They are our friends, many of whom are still living there in the most horrendous of conditions, fighting for survival, fighting for their freedom.

Now, amid the terrifying war in Ukraine, we need to help our friends by supporting those who stayed in Ukraine as well as over 150 refugees who fled to find shelter with us here in Kotuń (this number is increasing each day). Our volunteer programme is running out of funds. The scale of support is massive. It vastly exceeds the capacity of our community and local authorities. We are all helping every day, but it is overwhelming… For this reason we kindly ask you for your support.

WHAT IS NEEDED AT THE MOMENT?

1. Verba district:

Verba has been flooded by people who escaped their homes, located in the war zone. At present, displaced families urgently need blankets, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, canned food, instant food, ready-to-eat meals, bottled water, power banks, flashlights, generators, and first aid kits.

2. Vesele district:

Vesele is currently in the war zone and their hospital needs medical supplies, such as haemostatic and compression bandages, nasopharyngeal tubes, medical stretchers, orthopaedic neck collars, military first aid kits, decompression needles, surgical scissors, zinc anti-burn bandages, latex-free medical gloves, hydrogen peroxide in bottles, and medications.

3. The school converted into a refugee house:

The refugee house in Cisie-Zagrudzie, located in Kotuń, needs funds to create a safe space for children to play, renovate the toilets and the living area, and to buy necessary food, clothes, and medications for women and children staying there - most of them arrived to Kotuń only with a couple of items that they carried through the border.

LINKS:

POLAND

Kotuń district fire brigade: https://www.facebook.com/OSP-Broszk%C3%B3w-1498662...

Kotuń district web page: https://www.kotun.pl/

Kotuń district Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gminawiejskakotun

UKRAINE

Vesele web page: https://veselivska-gromada.gov.ua/

Vesele Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gromada.vesele

Verba web page: http://verba.rvadmin.gov.ua/

Verba Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058342696904