Off to the Front

Thursday, January 18th

Our last day in Ukraine. And it promised to be another packed day. What I didn’t realize as I walked out into the rainy cold weather that morning, is how profound an impact our last day would have on me.

Our first mission – meet with a woman name Lyudmilla Svoreny and her husband Oleg to deliver 3 more pickups and other essential supplies for front line fighters.

Alex and Zsuzsanna met Lyudmilla on a previous trip. She and her husband have organized a Humanitarian Aid center in Vynohradiv. As Alex recounted the night before, during the early days of the war when he made his first trip, there were refugees flooding in from the east with absolutely nothing. He saw a woman and her young daughter arrive from a train looking shell shocked. Lyudmilla had organized a set of donations for these arriving refugees – clothing, toiletries, baby care items, etc. The woman and her daughter started perusing the items and grabbing the things they needed - first a stroller, then a toothbrush, and some clothes. The little girl got a backpack and a toy. He saw how their expressions changed and they were reassured and comforted by getting these essential items that they had to leave behind in their hasty exit from their homes. This led Alex and Zsuzsanna to meet and connect to Lyudmilla who turned out to be a force of nature coordinating these donations and working directly with those in need.

Zsuzsanna with Lyudmilla and Oleg

As we waited for the trucks to arrive, we met Oleg, who speaks a little English and has a big personality. He shows us some recent videos of the front on his phone. He and Lyudmilla have taken 54 trips to the front to aid soldiers in the last 2 years. 54. That’s every 2 weeks. And, it takes 3 days to drive there given the bad roads and numerous checkpoints. On the videos were soldiers – sometimes solemn, sometimes smiling for the camera of thanking Oleg. The destruction was all around them. In some ways, the images were familiar – what I’d seen in war footage or even in a WWII movie. But these were taken days ago, by the person who was standing in front of me. It started to drive home the scale of the impact, the human cost, and also how incredibly brave and generous people can be – those that are fighting for their country’s freedom, and people like Oleg and Lyudmilla that have jumped in to help in any way they can.

The trucks arrive and we divide up to drive them in a convoy to the Vynohradiv Humanitarian Aid Center. We arrive to a makeshift building packed with all sorts of supplies. They are making canned food in jars and foil packets (no glass is allowed on the front lines), and have shelves with blankets, hand warmers, boots, gloves, and medicines. The generous donations of the people that supported this trip provided many of these supplies.

6 soldiers have made the long trip from the front lines to pick up the trucks supplies and take them back. They have gotten to spend 2 days with their families and loved ones and will head back today. We pack into a small, cramped room stacked with more donated essentials to meet them and hand over the donated trucks and supplies. My first impression was that you could see the impact of the front line on these soldiers in their faces. It’s hard to describe – it wasn’t fear or exhaustion or sadness. More like resolve and a hardening of their spirit. They range in age – one is a commander and has been in the army for 30 years. Another is 21, and joined when he was just 16. He’s fighting a war on the front lines and is the age of my daughters.

Through a translation from Ukrainian to Hungarian to English, they described their units and the work they are doing. We present each pair of fighters with the keys to the truck, as well as a surveillance drone and a night vision scope. They explain how important it is to have these three items. The trucks enable them to rescue injured comrades from the front. The drones help keep them safe during these operations; without them, they are very likely to have the trucks attacked during these operations. They make it clear that this equipment will save lives in their units. The gravity of the moment and the impact of this work fills the room. As does gratitude from the soldiers and from Lyudmilla and Oleg.

We spend a few minutes with the soldiers – they share the patches of their battalions and units with some of us and Alex gives his American flag hat to one of them who wears it proudly. They also show us some of the images and videos of fighting on the front to us. They are living in a different world – a brutal one that fortunately most of us don’t have to experience. War is hell.

We load up the trucks with the donated gear, food, and medical supplies. They are completely packed; Jonathan must have played a lot of Tetris in his day as he leads the effort to use every available space to fit it all in.

Family members are there to see off their loved ones. We learn that the 21-year-old young man has just been married while he’s been back home. There are long hugs and tearful goodbyes and they roll out and start the arduous drive back.

Special Needs Kids Institute

Our final stop is to a special needs home for boys where Alex and others (including some volunteers from NI) did a project at last year. We’re here to check in on the previous work and learn about their current needs.

The home was set up over 100 years ago and is run by the state. It’s a place where boys with special needs that are either orphaned or abandoned, come to live. I learn that many are in fact abandoned at birth, which is tragic. People just don’t have the resources to take care of them, so they come to this center to live out their lives. When the war started, more young children with special needs arrived from the east, further straining their ability to take care of them (this has become a common theme here). On their previous trip, the team renovated a wing for the children, including new bedrooms and furniture, new classrooms, and a new kitchen. They also provided a new generator to ensure electricity during blackouts.

The work done over a year ago has held up remarkably well and still looks new. It’s a huge upgrade from the rest of the facility and the staff is proud of the facility and grateful for having it. We also get to meet and spend a little time with the kids. Thanks to Guillaume, we have lots of candy to hand out, which is obviously well-received. The kids are really adorable.

Alex and I in the kitchen built by the Hungarian team in 2022

One of the remodeled classrooms

How many lollipops can you eat at one time?

We also see parts of the facility that are badly in need of more help – a roof that is leaking, a soviet-era van that is still used to transport the kids, and a shower facility that is required by the state (for weekly disinfecting showers) that feels like something from a concentration camp. I know that is a harsh comparison, but it is what came to mind for all of us, and being in there just to see it on the tour was really uncomfortable. A can’t image what it’s like for the kids that have to use it every week.

Reflections as we cross back over into Hungary

We head to the border to re-enter Hungary. As we arrive to the long line of cars, we learn that the border is going to close for 5 hours (?!) and it will take us at least 6 hours+ to cross over. Fortunately, Zsuzsanna is a miracle worker, and after a couple of calls, we turn around and route to another border crossing and are able to get across in an uneventful 90 minutes.

As we drive the 2 hours to Debrecen, I have a range of feelings. I’m pretty exhausted – we’ve done a lot and the range of emotions also takes in toll. I’m incredibly grateful to Zsuzsanna and her husband Krisztian – they are incredibly generous people. I can tell at the end of the trip Zsuzsanna is totally exhausted – she’s been working nonstop and is the point person for absolutely every aspect of the trip; she’s given every ounce of her substantial energy to this. I’m also grateful to Alex who was our pulled together this effort, raising money and recruiting people he knows to the trip, and to the families that donated financially to make the work so impactful. And, finally, I’m just in awe of the generosity of the people we met in Ukraine that in the face of all of these difficulties, are finding a way to help.

It’s incredible how close you can feel to a group of people after just a few days, when the days are as intense, impactful and emotional as these have been. Working alongside Brad, Brian, Guillaume, Jonathan, Michael, Alex, Zsuzsanna, and Krisztian was really an honor.

I’m also left with a feeling of being overwhelmed with how much need there is in Ukraine. I know we’ve had a real and tangible impact, and that by working directly with those in need and being here in person, we maximized that impact. But, there is so much more that is needed, both to help Ukraine win their fight for freedom, and to support them as they pick up the pieces after a brutal war. I’m reminded of a Hebrew saying that I once heard. It’s from the Pirkei Avot, the ”Ethics of our Fathers”:

“You are not obligated to finish the work, nor are you at liberty to neglect it”.

Hakarat Hatov.