Lend a Helping Hand

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By Robert Rowe

Love Light Romania has been supporting Ukrainian refugees with transport from the border to safe homes in Medias and Sibiu, transporting humanitarian aid up to the border and also supporting Ukrainians who are currently living in Sibiu and Medias.

In our 1st phase we raised money to buy a minibus and also to transport humanitarian aid to the border and to transport people to safety. Thanks to our amazing supporters we have managed to raise these funds and we bought a second-hand minibus. We have made trips to Suceava, Dorohoi and Siret. We worked with local projects in these areas and we took then humanitarian aid that was used in refugee centres in Romania, old people’s centres in Ukraine and also for meals on the borders. To date we have taken about 1,500 euros worth of aid to the border. We have transported people back to Sibiu and Medias. The need for transporting people form the northern border has slowed down so we then started phase 2.

Our 2nd phase has seen us concentrating more on local support. There are nearly 400 people who have stayed in Sibiu and over 150 in Medias and these numbers are gently climbing. Our minibus has been used to transport Ukrainian children from a school in Cisindoara (10km form Sibiu) to Sibiu for day trips. Also, to transport Ukrainians who are staying a village of Paltanis (30km from Sibiu) to Sibiu for supplies.

We have also supported a local drop-in centre in Sibiu with food, hygiene and sanitary products (500 euros) and also with boots (1,500 euros). We also received 20t of humanitarian aid form Germany and we gave this to the drop-in centre.

Another service that we have been offering in phase 2 is internal transport. We transported a mother and 2 children to Suceava as they were going back home because they live in the southern part of Ukraine where there is no fighting. We also transported a mother and her child to an immigration office in Satu Mare, where they received their immigration documents allowing them to stay here for a year.

Phase 2 is also seeing us support and set up projects in Medias. We have brought course work for an educational project which supports adults and children. Next, we want to set up a drop-in centre and also set up a more intensive educational project.

This is needed because during the time of the war there will be Ukrainians staying in Romania and they will need education, employment, housing and humanitarian aid. Phase 2 will cost us a total of €68,000 for 6 months.

Phase 3 will be dedicated to helping the Ukrainians to return home. We will provide transport for this and also help them to safely cross the border and arrive home. But this could become Phase 4 if there is a second wave of refugees and there is a belief that this will happen.

We are so grateful to everybody who has helped us so far with financial support, physical donations and also through volunteering. We have received a lot of support form our local expat group in Sibiu. But we still have work to do.

We need your help with this. To donate to our Ukrainian support project, use the following details:

Bank transfer, UK:

Love Light Romania Aid

Barclays Bank

Sort Code: 204451

Account number: 63731154

Bank Transfer, Romanian:

Asociatia Love Light Romania

IBAN: RO20BTRLRONCRT0P39069802

Swift: BTRLRO22

Banca Transivania

Fiscal code: 14145834

Website donation:

https://lovelightromania.com/make-a-donation/