We have pledged to take a convoy to the Poland/Ukraine border. Our drivers will be volunteers from our Preston Caravan’s team. We will also be joined by a Polish/Ukrainian interpreter and a further volunteer who has already completed a trip to the Ukrainian border, whose contacts we will be using throughout our trip. We will be setting off on the 6th April.
On the journey out, we will be taking specialised medical equipment, winter baby clothes, satellite phones and walkie talkies, as per the request of the teams down in Medyka. These have already been gathered and are ready to go.
Once there, we are working with the Ukraine Border Action to collect 36 refugees who need to be reunited with family, friends or sponsors in the UK and Europe. As the refugee group will be almost exclusively women, children and elderly people, we are bringing a motorhome as a support vehicle for those who have medical or child nursing needs on the road. In addition, we have bought 2 minibuses to transport people, and a transit van to transport aid on the outward journey and luggage on the return trip.
We are estimating that this journey in total will cost around £12,000. Any contribution towards fuel, accommodation on the return journey, ferry crossings or food for our convoy would be greatly appreciated.
We have had significant media interest in our plans, with the BBC following us back from the UK, and we will of course ensure we give credit to all those who have supported us, including our updates on our social media platforms and website. I think this will become a story of the industry pulling together to help those who desperately need it.
All costings will be made totally transparent so you can see exactly how your contributions have helped, and should we be fortunate enough to make more than we need, we will put this toward a second trip. We will of course be updating our company social media as our journey progresses so you will be able to see in real time the difference that you have made while we take our refugees back to the UK.
We have set us a JustGiving Page, to make it easy to donate and see how our fundraising is going.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/prestoncaravansandmotorhomes-ukraine