Chernobyl Aid Newry's £20,000 helping hand to the people of Ukraine

FOR over 20 years Chernobyl Aid Newry has been providing humanitarian support to those most in need in Belarus, one of the countries worst affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown disaster.

For the past two decades a group from the charity organisation , which is the brainchild of Newry man Collie McGuigan, has travelled to some of the most deprived areas of Belarus twice yearly to carry out renovation and construction projects in the various asylums, orphanages and elderly peoples homes scattered throughout the country which shares close borders with its neighbour to the south Ukraine.

After having administered this remarkable level of care and support to those most in need of it in Belarus for over twenty years , the organisation also felt duty bound to lend a helping hand to all those refugees who fled Ukraine, the country in which the Chernobyl meltdown occurred and from which the charity takes its name, who fled the country in the wake of Vladmir Putin's invasion at the start of the conflict in February 2022.

Elaborating on the efforts taken on the part of the organisation was retired Warrenpoint Pharmacist and Chairperson of Chernobyl Aid Newry Jacinta Curren, who after having returned from both Poland and Ukraine last year is without a doubt more than qualified to provide a first-hand account of what adminstering relief efforts on the ground are like for aid workers helping those who are fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Vladmir Putin's militaristic expansion into their nation.

Surge of Support

“During the Covid -19 pandemic we couldn't go out to Belarus. We thought that we may be able to get out at the start of 2022, but then the war in Ukraine broke out. We thought initially that it may be too dangerous to head out but we saw the need in February last year. We were looking at it and we thought to ourselves that we had to do something because our group is called Chernobyl Aid Newry.

“Once the war broke out, we had a surge of people wanting to give money. Ukraine was in the news, there was a lot of people wanting to give support , my friends, my family and the normal supporters of Chernobyl Aid Newry as well. Also a lot of people that we would not have known beforehand and would not have thought of donating to Chernobyl Aid Newry did so because of the war in Ukraine.

“In one weekend we raised £20,000. Whilst there was no one single massive donation that contributed to this , we raised these funds from a large quantity of smaller donations. For us £20'000 over one weekend was unheard of. As a charity Chernobyl aid Newry would usually raise £10,000 for each trip twice a year.”

“Newry, Mourne and Down District Council asked us to help get boxes of aid to go out to Poland and then Ukraine. I was speaking to Arthur Kmiecik. He works for the council but he is Polish and his wife is Ukrainian. We knew both of them and we said to them that as an organisation Chernobyl Aid Newry were definitely going out to Ukraine. We told this to Arthur and he also told us that his wife Tatiana wanted to go out. This was on the Sunday March 13.

“We then decided that it would be better not to take our own supplies out to Ukraine with us , but that it would be better to fundraise the revenue needed for the trip in Newry , fly out to Poland and then purchase the items that we needed in Poland and get the supplies into Ukraine that way. By Thursday March 10 we booked our flights to go over the following Tuesday which was March 15. We were in Ukraine from the March 15 to March 22, one week.

“On Saturday March 12 there was a big rally at Newry Town Hall and we were also held a fundraiser in the Buttercrane shopping centre. I was invited to speak at the rally and we got more money over there and then we made contact with Mariya Krupska. Mariya is a Ukrainian living in Newry for the past 19 years. She called me to ask if Chernobyl Aid Newry could help her get her own supplies out to Ukraine. Mariya also said that she was going out the following week. “She was flying out on Monday March 14 and she could meet us in Poland. We went out on Tuesday March 15, myself, Collie and Tatiana our translator. Tatiana’s husband is Polish and he got us a place to stay with some lovely hosts in Poland called Mariola and Arthur Blaszczak. We would have bought supplies to bring into Ukraine on a daily basis.

“Mariya Krupska was very helpful in this regard as she showed us where to shop in Poland. Mariya was very helpful because she knew how to get us into Ukraine. She was also very helpful in helping us get past the borders. Mariya meet us on Wednesday March 16 and took us to places in Poland where we could buy supplies.

Crossing the border

“We were driving into Ukraine with the supplies that were purchased in Poland with the £20,000 worth of funds that we had gathered throughout fundraising in Newry.

“We had hired a van in Poland and every day we brought whatever it was we could fit into the van, be it medical equipment, food, clothing, anything that the refugees needed. We concentrated on special clothing to help keep the military warm. Mariya had contacts. They were young Ukrainian volunteers that risked their lives driving vans up to us and taking our supplies. We didn't drive that far into Ukraine so these volunteers came and took our supplies for those who needed them.

Helping a family in need

“ We also took a family consisting of a mother and four children into Poland also. The oldest child was seven. Their father was working in Italy at the time and he couldn't come back into Ukraine. He was trying to get his family out so we brought them out and we drove them out up towards Warsaw. We meet him along the road and we transferred his family and this was such a great experience. They were crying and hugging and kissing us. We were about to leave and the mother came running back to us with a beaded picture crafted by herself of Our Lady.

“Like I said we just got across the border into Ukraine and you had to wait because there were big ques. But like I said thanks to Maryia's connections got us through quicker.”

The mass exodus of Ukrainian nationals from their country of birth caused by the Russian invasion has only one historical counterpart in living memory , that being the mass displacement of peoples from their native homelands caused by the expansion of the Axis powers in eastern Europe during the second world war.

Having witnessed the mass evacuation of refugees flooding into Poland from Ukraine with her own two eyes this is a fact that is not lost on Mrs Curren, with the retired pharmacists likening what it is she saw both in the former Soviet state and on the Polish border to “something you would see from footage of the second world war, only in colour.”

“Going across the border from Poland into Ukraine was horrific. Women and children were walking across the border. It would be like something you would see from footage of the second world war, only in colour. At the border it was predominantly women and children and they were carrying plastic bags. The children were hanging on to their mothers, there were babies, there were toddlers, there were old men, but no young men. There were people limping across the border.

“After they crossed the border they went into holding centres on the Polish side. The Polish did fantastic work but the holding centres were overcrowded. The people who came across the border had to have their paperwork processed and it had to be determined where it is they were going to and if they had nowhere to go places had to be found to send them.

“ As an organisation we sponsored a place in Poland that acted as half way house. This was a Pentecostal church who also did fantastic work.”

Support still ongoing

Jacinta concluded by relating the fact that although she and her colleagues have not made a trip to Poland or Ukraine so far in 2023, they continue to provide support to refugees of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, having recently fundraised as much as £2000 for a young boy called Maxim who suffers from Battens disease.

“We are still supporting the people of Ukraine through Mariya Krupska or through Tatiana via her contacts in Kyiv. Before Christmas Chernobyl Aid Newry loaded up two pallets worth of supplies and Mariya got in contact with us to help bring the pallets out to Ukraine. So as an organisation Chernobyl Aid Newry are continuing to help the people of Ukraine, even though we haven't been out.

“Over Christmas we also collected funds for a little boy called Maxim, who suffers from Battens disease. We raised £2000 to help buy a generator for his medical equipment because the constant bombing where he lives interferes with the electricity and he needs constant care for his condition.”FOR over 20 years Chernobyl Aid Newry has been providing humanFOR FOR over 20 years Chernobyl Aid Newry has been providing humanitarian support to those most in need in Belarus, one of the countries worst affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown disaster.

For the past two decades a group from the charity organisation , which is the brainchild of Newry man Collie McGuigan, has travelled to some of the most deprived areas of Belarus twice yearly to carry out renovation and construction projects in the various asylums, orphanages and elderly peoples homes scattered throughout the country which shares close borders with its neighbour to the south Ukraine.

After having administered this remarkable level of care and support to those most in need in Belarus for over twenty years , the organisation also felt duty bound to lend a helping hand to all those refugees who fled Ukraine, the country in which the Chernobyl meltdown occurred and from which the charity takes its name, who fled the country in the wake of Vladmir Putin's invasion at the start of the conflict in February 2022.

Elaborating on the efforts taken on the part of the organisation was retired Warrenpoint Pharmacist and Chairperson of Chernobyl Aid Newry Jacinta Curren, who after having returned from both Poland and Ukraine last year is without a doubt more than qualified to provide a first-hand account of what adminstering relief efforts on the ground are like for aid workers helping those who are fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Vladmir Putin's militaristic expansion into their nation.

Surge of Support

“During the Covid -19 pandemic we couldn't go out to Belarus. We thought that we may be able to get out at the start of 2022, but then the war in Ukraine broke out. We thought initially that it may be too dangerous to head out but we saw the need in February last year. We were looking at it and we thought to ourselves that we had to do something because our group is called Chernobyl Aid Newry.

“Once the war broke out, we had a surge of people wanting to give money. Ukraine was in the news, there was a lot of people wanting to give support , my friends, my family and the normal supporters of Chernobyl Aid Newry as well. Also a lot of people that we would not have known beforehand and would not have thought of donating to Chernobyl Aid Newry did so because of the war in Ukraine.

“In one weekend we raised £20,000. Whilst there was no one single massive donation that contributed to this , we raised these funds from a large quantity of smaller donations. For us £20'000 over one weekend was unheard of. As a charity Chernobyl aid Newry would usually raise £10,000 for each trip twice a year.”

“Newry, Mourne and Down District Council asked us to help get boxes of aid to go out to Poland and then Ukraine. I was speaking to Arthur Kmiecik. He works for the council but he is Polish and his wife is Ukrainian. We knew both of them and we said to them that as an organisation Chernobyl Aid Newry were definitely going out to Ukraine. We told this to Arthur and he also told us that his wife Tatiana wanted to go out. This was on the Sunday March 13.

“We then decided that it would be better not to take our own supplies out to Ukraine with us , but that it would be better to fundraise the revenue needed for the trip in Newry , fly out to Poland and then purchase the items that we needed in Poland and get the supplies into Ukraine that way. By Thursday March 10 we booked our flights to go over the following Tuesday which was March 15. We were in Ukraine from the March 15 to March 22, one week.

“On Saturday March 12 there was a big rally at Newry Town Hall and we were also held a fundraiser in the Buttercrane shopping centre. I was invited to speak at the rally and we got more money over there and then we made contact with Mariya Krupska. Mariya is a Ukrainian living in Newry for the past 19 years. She called me to ask if Chernobyl Aid Newry could help her get her own supplies out to Ukraine. Mariya also said that she was going out the following week. “She was flying out on Monday March 14 and she could meet us in Poland. We went out on Tuesday March 15, myself, Collie and Tatiana our translator. Tatiana’s husband is Polish and he got us a place to stay with some lovely hosts in Poland called Mariola and Arthur Blaszczak. We would have bought supplies to bring into Ukraine on a daily basis.

“Mariya Krupska was very helpful in this regard as she showed us where to shop in Poland. Mariya was very helpful because she knew how to get us into Ukraine. She was also very helpful in helping us get past the borders. Mariya meet us on Wednesday March 16 and took us to places in Poland where we could buy supplies.

Crossing the border

“We were driving into Ukraine with the supplies that were purchased in Poland with the £20,000 worth of funds that we had gathered throughout fundraising in Newry.

“We had hired a van in Poland and every day we brought whatever it was we could fit into the van, be it medical equipment, food, clothing, anything that the refugees needed. We concentrated on special clothing to help keep the military warm. Mariya had contacts. They were young Ukrainian volunteers that risked their lives driving vans up to us and taking our supplies. We didn't drive that far into Ukraine so these volunteers came and took our supplies for those who needed them.

Helping a family in need

“ We also took a family consisting of a mother and four children into Poland also. The oldest child was seven. Their father was working in Italy at the time and he couldn't come back into Ukraine. He was trying to get his family out so we brought them out and we drove them out up towards Warsaw. We meet him along the road and we transferred his family and this was such a great experience. They were crying and hugging and kissing us. We were about to leave and the mother came running back to us with a beaded picture crafted by herself of Our Lady.

“Like I said we just got across the border into Ukraine and you had to wait because there were big ques. But like I said thanks to Maryia's connections got us through quicker.”

The mass exodus of Ukrainian nationals from their country of birth caused by the Russian invasion has only one historical counterpart in living memory, that being the mass displacement of peoples from their native homelands caused by the expansion of the Axis powers in eastern Europe during the Second World War.

Having witnessed the mass evacuation of refugees flooding into Poland from Ukraine with her own two eyes this is a fact that is not lost on Mrs Curren, with the retired pharmacists likening what it is she saw both in the former Soviet state and on the Polish border to “something you would see from footage of the Second World War, only in colour.”

“Going across the border from Poland into Ukraine was horrific. Women and children were walking across the border. It would be like something you would see from footage of the Second World War, only in colour. At the border it was predominantly women and children and they were carrying plastic bags. The children were hanging on to their mothers, there were babies, there were toddlers, there were old men, but no young men. There were people limping across the border.

“After they crossed the border they went into holding centres on the Polish side. The Polish did fantastic work but the holding centres were overcrowded. The people who came across the border had to have their paperwork processed and it had to be determined where it is they were going to and if they had nowhere to go places had to be found to send them.

“ As an organisation we sponsored a place in Poland that acted as half way house. This was a Pentecostal church who also did fantastic work.”

Support still ongoing

Jacinta concluded by relating the fact that although she and her colleagues have not made a trip to Poland or Ukraine so far in 2023, they continue to provide support to refugees of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, having recently fundraised as much as £2000 for a young boy called Maxim who suffers from Battens disease.

“We are still supporting the people of Ukraine through Mariya Krupska or through Tatiana via her contacts in Kyiv. Before Christmas Chernobyl Aid Newry loaded up two pallets worth of supplies and Mariya got in contact with us to help bring the pallets out to Ukraine. So as an organisation Chernobyl Aid Newry are continuing to help the people of Ukraine, even though we haven't been out.

“Over Christmas we also collected funds for a little boy called Maxim, who suffers from Battens disease. We raised £2000 to help buy a generator for his medical equipment because the constant bombing where he lives interferes with the electricity and he needs constant care for his condition.”