Reli­ef sup­pli­es to the front lines

Möh­ne­see, Janu­ary 20, 2025. Tog­e­ther with “Ukrai­ne-Hil­fe Del­brück,” the asso­cia­ti­on ARCHEMED – Ärz­te für Kin­der in Not e. V. laun­ched the first aid con­voy of 2025 to Ukrai­ne. The trans­port set off on Janu­ary 6. The reli­ef sup­pli­es rea­ched the cities of Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. Nine dri­vers cover­ed a total of 4,700 kilo­me­ters in seven days.

“We are hap­py to sup­port the tire­less com­mit­ment of the peo­p­le from Del­brück; we have the same goal in mind: we want to help whe­re the need is grea­test,” says Huber­tus Bömer, Tre­asurer at Archemed. To this end, the asso­cia­ti­on orga­ni­zed a gene­rous dona­ti­on in kind: brand-new ope­ra­tio­nal clot­hing for 40 fire­figh­ters worth over 30,000 euros. The manu­fac­tu­rer “Der Klas­si­ker” from the Black Forest dona­ted the urgen­tly nee­ded fire­fight­ing equip­ment. Fur­ther­mo­re, the asso­cia­ti­on pro­vi­ded sup­port with ban­da­ges and dres­sing mate­ri­als. Archemed pro­vi­ded a van for the con­voy and cover­ed the enti­re tra­vel cos­ts of the reli­ef deli­very. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the Del­brück group orga­ni­zed three res­to­red fire engi­nes inclu­ding exten­si­ve equip­ment, 25 power gene­ra­tors, medi­cal sup­pli­es, win­ter clot­hing, and slee­ping bags. Ukrai­ne-Hil­fe Del­brück and Archemed are now working hand in hand for this good cau­se.

In addi­ti­on to the finan­cial and mate­ri­al aid from Archemed, the Del­brück group also bene­fi­ted from the asso­cia­ti­on’s cont­acts. Upon arri­val in Ukrai­ne, Mikhail, a con­fi­dant and fri­end of Archemed, joi­n­ed the con­voy. He accom­pa­nied the trans­port and gui­ded them safe­ly into the coun­try­’s cities and cri­sis are­as. Fur­ther­mo­re, he assis­ted with various chal­lenges, such as at cus­toms: a hor­se trai­ler was part of the con­voy, but its depar­tu­re had not been docu­men­ted, mea­ning that accor­ding to Ukrai­ni­an records, it was still sup­po­sed to be in the coun­try. Mikhail media­ted, and after an inspec­tion, the aut­ho­ri­ties cle­ared the trai­ler to con­ti­nue its jour­ney. He also hel­ped com­ple­te the paper­work for the new fire engi­nes. Thanks to Mikhail, ent­ry into Ukrai­ne was pos­si­ble in a record time of 2.5 hours.

During the mis­si­on, the vol­un­teers were con­fron­ted with num­e­rous air raid alarms. At night, they could obser­ve the air defen­ses as they enga­ged Rus­si­an dro­nes and mis­siles. Night­ti­me cur­fews forced them to make sto­po­vers. The jour­ney to the front lines left las­ting impres­si­ons: bom­bed-out cities, bur­ned-out hou­ses, and des­troy­ed infra­struc­tu­re. Howe­ver, even during the return jour­ney, the vol­un­teers recei­ved the first mes­sa­ges and pho­tos full of gra­ti­tu­de. The know­ledge of how important this aid is con­firms and streng­thens the vol­un­teers in their com­mit­ment.