The Trust has responded to calls by local groups for donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) and has now provided over 180,000 pieces of PPE to be transported and used to help those in Ukraine or Poland with medical and care needs. The excess stocks of PPE, such as face masks, aprons, gowns, gloves, and hand sanitiser, had been stored in county-based PPE hubs.

Fiona Elwell, OSJCT Category Manager, procurement team, said: “I am grateful to Nikita Patel, our Decommissioning Coordinator, for taking the initiative to advertise the excess stock through Facebook. Local voluntary groups collecting for the Ukranian Appeal in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire responded and we have been able to play a small part in helping protect those at the front-line of care in this conflict.”

Donations made in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire

In March, members of the Trust’s Procurement Team contacted Cliff Woodward, who was volunteering along with his wife Lorraine and Berkshire Search and Rescue colleagues to collect and transport much needed donations. Items were collected for www.oursupport4ukraine.com, a group of Ukrainian and UK nationals which came together to support those directly affected and displaced by the conflict.

Cliff and his colleagues helped to organise and move community donations from collection points in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to trucks ready to travel the next day to the Ukraine. He explained: “Working with Nikita and Paul from the Trust, we managed to transport the bulk of donations to the Benson collection point and then on to Steventon, Chalgrove and Didcot where they went into trucks bound direct for Ukraine. The first trucks arrived in Ukraine where the Trust’s donated PPE equipment, as well as food, medicines, camping gear, clothes, nappies, and sanitary articles were distributed directly to those in need.”

PPE from the Trust’s homes near Gloucester was initially collected by a Ukrainian church organisation in Gloucestershire. Cliff also arranged for additional loads of PPE from Marlborough to be transported to Poland in a shipment organised by the Thatcham Rotarians and local company, 500 Logistics.

Donations in Lincolnshire

In Lincolnshire, OSJCT team members arranged to donate PPE to the Polish charity, Fudacja Ermed. The foundation receives donations from several countries and then directly transports the aid into Ukraine. The Polish School in Lincoln has been coordinating donations as the main sorting and shipping location for donations received within the county.

Donations are shipped to Poland and then on to Ukraine, an operation which runs seven days a week by a team of volunteers. By early May over 50 tons of aid had been sent by the charity.

Richard Sargent who liaised with OSJCT Procurement team said: “As someone who has taken aid over to Poland, I can’t express how important these donations are. After meeting just one Ukrainian family and hearing their story, I understood what a difference the aid made.”