Upping the Ante on Aid to Ukraine

OK so you know that my wife and I have had a Ukrainian refugee family stay with us. They now have their own home, the eldest boy is now in school, and they are all setting in well. Nataliia's younger sister has visited several times, and we found another home and sponsor for her mum and dad to stay in a house opposite us. That's six people we have helped so far. So what do we do next?

This weekend I met my old school friend Kai Hughes, who is a director of Casus Pax https://casuspax.org/ . Kai has also had a distinguished 20 year career in the Royal Navy and subsequently for the International Cotton Association. What he and his team were doing in Ukraine just blew me away.

Casus Pax are a humanitarian non-profit organisation specialising in emergency relief and disaster preparedness. Their focus is providing medical supplies and logistics support across Ukraine. Since the beginning of hostilities in February last year, they have delivered over 50,000 pieces of cutting edge, lifesaving equipment worth over £250,000 directly to clinicians across the country. They have also provided "last mile logistics" services in partnership with British and Ukrainian organisations to ensure vital aid is delivered to some of the most exposed and vulnerable front-line settlements.

The majority of the aid is medical supplies, which varies from high quality, military grade trauma bandages and burns dressings to search and rescue equipment such as immobilisation slings, rescue sledges and stretchers for civilians on the frontlines. They have also provided maternity supplies, as well as neonatal and paediatric equipment.

They source this kit from organisations whose stores of supplies are almost at their use by date, so it becomes high value low cost relief. A brilliant concept. They then send a mix of men and women on these mercy missions, to better gain the trust of the people in the villages and towns they are delivering aid to.

They currently need support for transport and logistics costs. Read more about them at their Just Giving page (and their website) and join me in supporting them. They are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things without the inertia of some of the larger aid organisations. These are very brave people. Let's get them there and get them back safely.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/casuspax-smib