Take the Bus to Ukraine… 

The Stoke Gabriel-based charity Ukrainian Action Team Devon safely completed their 17th convoy of vehicles earlier this month.  Eight volunteer drivers took 6 assorted vehicles, including an ambulance and a minibus, all packed with medical and other humanitarian aid to Krakow, where they were handed over to the local Ukrainian team.  This was to have included a former ‘Bob the Bus’, but mechanical issues meant that his journey will have to be postponed until later this year.

Ukranian Action’s core mission is to deliver medical and humanitarian aid in support of all those impacted by the war. And so far they have also delivered well over 500 trucks, ambulances, mini-buses all driven by volunteers like me and which will then end up helping to evacuate the elderly and the wounded from areas near the front line.

Three of the Team Devon drivers have continued into Ukraine to help deliver the vehicles and supplies to where they’re needed.  Among them is Jimmy Edmonds, whose bereavement support charity The Good Grief Project plans to make a film about the traumatic effects of loss of life in a war zone.

The conflict in Ukraine has been in and out of the news for over 4 years, and has now lasted longer than WW1.  From a distance, it’s easy to be sceptical about the impact of relatively small quantities of aid on an international conflict.  But all our Ukrainian contacts assure us that even a single truck or bus in the right place, where aid needs to be delivered or an evacuation is required, can be genuinely life-changing for local people caught up in the war zone.  UA Team Devon’s Adam Steward expresses this as “I can’t change the world, but maybe I can change your world…”

Yoiu can read more about this journey on Jimmy Edmonds Substack page here

[Title Image: Team leaders Pete and Adam with the latest convoy at the Ukrainian border.   Photo by Jimmy Edmonds. ]