It seems hard to believe that this will be my last report on this trip.
I am uncertain as to how many kilometers I logged in travel or various forms of transportation but I know it was a great amount. I continue to be weary from the travel but today feel much better after a good night’s sleep.
Today’s visits to the town of Korosten, Ukraine were touching as I saw large groups of those who are receiving help from what we are able to ship in containers. Here are a few of those that I would like to share with you…
Clothing distribution…
I arrived just before a large number of displaced families were allowed to pick out clothing from those items we have shipped. These were families from Lugansk and Donetsk.
The group is present because they have been invited. This scheduling is a lesson learned from previous times when we just posted an announcement and invited people to come. That resulted in confusion and angry outbursts. So now the distribution center has a list of those who are displaced and they are divided into groups. Nicholi told me that since we have shipped so many clothes that now people are invited to come 2-3 times a day instead of just once a day. Thanks to your generosity these families are welcomed to come and take as much as they need for their family.
Severely Disabled School…
We delivered food bags and dry food mix boxes to a school that cares for 50+ severely disabled children. The mothers had been invited to come and participate in the event. To the dry food mixes we added cooking oil, salt, sugar, and some other commodities.
I was able to participate in giving away the shoebox presents again.
The Director told me that no one helps but us. The State does not give any money. Our Consignee has long been associated with this school.
Nicholi is working with a contact in Germany who is going to send 20 new wheel chairs to this school!
Feeding station for school children…
Over 100 children are fed daily in a program that originally began offering one meal a day to children and it has now evolved to include many displaced children. The feeding kitchen is located just across from the school so at the students’ lunch time the children come for a hot meal. Today they had buckwheat, bread, homemade fruit juices, and bread. The ladies who cook are volunteers. The food is largely provided by donations and we help as much as possible. The food that has been in our shipments has helped stock this feeding effort.
URGENT NEEDS REQUESTED FROM THIS TRIP…
We have FIVE container loadings scheduled from contacts I have made on this trip. The majority of items to be shipped are being requested for those displaced by Russia’s invasion and for those wounded, orphaned, or widowed by the war. The civilian casualty numbers are staggering. The total death count is now approaching 10,000 and from this number about 2/3 are civilian casualties!
We have been BEGGED to send personal hygiene bags and boxes!
We have been BEGGED to send Family Buckets!
Will you work with your church, school, civic club, office workers, neighbors and friends to collected and put together these Personal Hygiene bags (2 gallon zip lock bags) and Family Buckets (5 Gallon plastic buckets with lids)??
Pray for our efforts as this trip comes to a close!
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
Kyiv, Ukraine
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