(ANSA) – ROME, 06 APR – A journey of solidarity and meetings with the Ukrainian people, to bring long-life food for adults and babies, personal hygiene products (including toothbrushes and toothpastes for children) and for first aid. This is what the San Vincenzo association organized, with the participation of the Sidp Onlus Foundation, together with many other third sector associations, from 30 March to 4 April 2023. The convoy, made up of 7 minibuses, each of which carried up to 500 kg of material, and joined Padua with 23 other vehicles to form the Caravan of Peace as a whole.
All of them crossed Slovenia and Hungary and entered Ukraine in the night between 30 March and 1 April, through the Berehove border, after very strict controls. The first overnight stay was made a few kilometers beyond the border and the night passed not without difficulty. In the middle of the night a strong shaking of the ground and walls announced the passage of an armored column.
They wait for the end of the curfew and on April 1st at dawn the caravan leaves for Odessa, where it arrives after a journey of about 1000 km. In Odessa the volunteers were hosted in a small house owned by the religious community directed by Father Vitaly Novak, facing the port where the ships load the grain. All in sleeping bags to spend the night. In the morning the noise of gunfire and grenades comes from the sea. Father Novak, who has just arrived from the Kharkiv front, recounts some terrible moments lived at the front and the thousands of soldiers who died defending the freedom of Ukraine. He also testifies to us that he wants to leave immediately to bring comfort to his soldiers who are friends at war and thanks the Italian Vincentians for having received as a gift the money needed to buy a vehicle for the transport of wounded soldiers at the front. In the morning the convoy heads to the Odessa children’s hospital for the delivery of a large generator. Dr. Claudio Gatti, vice president of the SIdP Onlus Foundation, donates prevention materials for hospitalized children to health personnel.
The volunteers head towards Mykolajev, where most of the transported humanitarian goods are unloaded in the specially prepared local collection centre. In the late evening a missile alarm forces them to take refuge quickly in the basement/bunker of a school. The next morning you notice the lines of people waiting to be able to have food in the collection centers and other lines of people filling cans of water from the small desalination plants scattered around the city. A small delegation (one vehicle) is allowed to bring humanitarian goods to Kherson, a city on the banks of the Dnepr River, on the Russian front, where dangerous fighting is underway.
In the late morning the volunteers attend Mass for Palm Sunday, and the Pope in his homily in the Vatican recalls the mission and thanks the volunteers. Immediately after mass, the green light is given to return. The delegation of San Vincenzo di Sesto Calende (with the representative of the SIdP Foundation) sets off for home and, after crossing Moldavia, Romania, Hungary and Slovenia, arrives home after 2 days. They covered 4952 kilometers in 64 hours of total round trip. With the SIdP (Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology) in mind and heart, the mission of the SIdP Onlus Foundation can be considered happily concluded. The same can be said for San Vincenzo de Paoli. Local representatives of the Ukrainian people thanked all the volunteers. Other next aid missions are planned. The enthusiasm of the Vincentian volunteers is extraordinary. (HANDLE).
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