“We are going to have people’s lives in our hands.” João Martins and 15 other young people are behind “Mission Ukraine”, a caravan that left Lisbon today for the Polish border with Ukraine to pick up around thirty refugees, including a seven-month-old baby.
It’s 6:15 in the morning. There is still no one at the doors of the São João de Brito school in Lisbon. Little by little the young people begin to arrive. At 7 o’clock, without delay, they will head to Medyka, on the Polish-Ukrainian border, to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate Ukrainians.
“I’m not afraid. We know the responsibility that this has. We are going to have people’s lives in our hands, but all the people are confident and courageous enough to do this,” the young man told Efe. The caravan has 7,000 kilometers ahead of it to reach the Polish border with Ukraine and return.
“We are going to bring medicine and food to the refugees at the border and then we are going to bring about 30 people to Portugal, mostly women and children, including a seven-month-old baby,” he says.
They have 21 confirmed people, most of them with family, friends or a house in Portugal. They still have eight places available which, they regret, will fill up quickly.
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Along with food and medicine, the five nine-seater vans carry gasoline, stuffed animals and “things to paint” for the little ones.
They estimate that they will reach the border in two or three days on a non-stop trip where the three drivers of each van will take turns at the wheel until they reach their destination and, on the way back, they will spend a night in Frankfurt.
He will evacuate his cousin
The trip has also been joined by Roman Barchuk, a 25-year-old Ukrainian who arrived in Portugal in 2004 and will be in charge of communicating with the refugees.
This trip is important to him. In addition to the ties that bind him to Ukraine, he will evacuate his nine-year-old cousin: “She – her aunt – comes alone to bring my cousin, crosses the border to hand him over to me and then comes back,” he tells Efe.
Along with the fifteen drivers, the 25-year-old nurse Índia Saraiva participates in the project. The main challenge, she describes, is not knowing what the status and health conditions of people are.
“We are going to try to have a communication strategy, try to integrate them in the best way into our team, protect them as much as possible from external stimuli and bring them with maximum security,” adds the young woman.
youth initiative
The initiative of these young people between 23 and 28 years old arose between a group of five portuguese friends. One of them proposed it in the WhatsApp group and they all accepted.
“Some of us know each other from work, we get together with other friends from outside and we form a group of 15 people who are very determined to do the best we can in this horrible situation that is the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine”maintains Simão Saraiva, another of the participants.
Several asked for days off from work and others took days off from their vacations, but all of them managed in one way or another the days for “this important cause”.
“For us it is important not to remain indifferent and to show that people, individually without being associated with an organization, can make a difference”, João Pedro Westwood subscribes.
The trip can be followed through the Instagram account “Missão Ucrânia”, where they have already shared the collection of belongings in recent days and will publish the entire process.
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Since Russia began the invasion of Ukraine There have been dozens of rallies and demonstrations in Portugal calling for an end to the war and actions to help refugees have multiplied.
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In recent days, several “humanitarian caravans” have left for the Ukrainian border. More than 60 people left Portugal on Tuesday to bring food to Poland and transfer refugees.
More than 28,600 Ukrainians reside in Portugal, the fifth position in the list of foreign communities on Portuguese soil, and in recent days the country has received more than 2,600 requests for temporary protection from Ukrainians. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
