United Aid Volunteers Deliver Direct Aid to Ukraine Refugees
Photo Credit: Tudor Chiriac
As United Aid Foundation board, volunteers, donors, and friends watch refugees flee the war in Ukraine, United Aid Foundation leadership determined our organization cannot stand by and watch a human catastrophe unfold without doing our part to help.
A team of volunteers is headed to Botoșani, Romania, a small city on the border of Romania and Ukraine where hundreds of Ukrainian refugees are streaming into the country.
Mothers fighting back tears, pushing baby strollers, and clutching the hands of their children tell a story of heartbreak. No translation needed.
Photo Credit: Tudor Chiriac
“United Aid Foundation was created to provide direct aid to people in crisis,” said John Alex, UAF founder and president. “Responding to situations like this with life-sustaining supplies is what we were built for.”
The United Aid Foundation team will purchase and distribute necessities such as food, water, hygiene items, baby products, SIM cards, blankets, and other items as needed. The team will be laying groundwork for possible medical missions in the future.
United Aid Foundation has deep ties to the city of Botoșani and the region. Board member Abigail Hayo, a nonprofit executive, first visited the area 20 years ago, leading a medical team based in Kansas City, Mo., to perform clinical care and surgeries.
“This is a heartbreaking situation for the Ukrainians who lost everything in the blink of an eye,” said Hayo. “I want to help the people who are coming across the border not knowing where to turn, and I want to support the wonderful people of Botoșani who are doing their best to help.”
Photo Credit: Tudor Chiriac
For United Aid Foundation volunteer Alexandru Drescanu, this is personal. Drescanu, a registered nurse in Kansas City, Mo., grew up in Botoșani and played a large role in running an orphanage within the city, which the United Aid Foundation sponsored for more than a decade.
“Ukraine and Romania share the values of community and family,” Drescanu said. “When you see pictures of Ukrainian villages destroyed by the Russian bombs, I think, ‘That could be a village in Romania where my grandparents lived and where I grew up.’ If it wasn’t for the fact Romania joined NATO in 2004, what is happening to the people in Ukraine, could very well be happening to my family.”
Drescanu, Hayo, and Alex will be joined by other United Aid Foundation volunteers and hope to set up a system for food and goods distribution.
“It is the least we can do,” Alex said. “A short time ago the people in Ukraine were going about their daily lives just like all of us do. Then, in a flash, what used to seem impossible became a grim and most unfair reality.”
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