Driving to Ukraine: We’re Joining a Humanitarian Aid Convoy

In a few weeks, we will be driving to Ukraine. We’re joining a humanitarian aid convoy to deliver 4×4 vehicles and essential supplies to people who need them. I wonder what it will be like… to hear an air raid siren for the first time. To have to find shelter. To look up at the sky and wonder whether the sound overhead is a plane, a drone, or something far worse. I wonder how it feels to be in a country where safety isn’t guaranteed. And what it will do to me to see a country at war with my own eyes. What stories we’ll hear, who we’ll meet, and how I’ll make sense of it all. Perhaps a little dramatic, considering we’re only going towards Kyiv for about a week as volunteer drivers. But Ukraine is ultimately a country at war, and we’d be foolish to pretend there’s no risk involved. So why are we going?

What do we do with our freedom?

For years, Marcel and I have been building a life revolving around freedom. We became entrepreneurs, started working remotely, and spent a year and a half traveling around the world in our Toyota 4Runner driving from the Netherlands to Singapore.

It’s a priviliged life. And lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about what we actually do with all that freedom. Because less than three days’ drive from our home, people are fighting for theirs (and ours!).

People who have to say goodbye to their families without knowing whether they’ll see them again. Who sleep in freezing trenches while drones circle overhead. Who have watched friends die, lost their homes, or spent years waiting for someone they love to come back.

And here I am, thinking about where we’ll spend the winter. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying the life we’ve created. But I do wonder whether we could use our freedom for something beyond ourselves.

When we heard that the Dutch foundation Friends of Ukraine was looking for volunteer drivers, that question suddenly became very practical. We know how to drive long distances in a 4×4. We have experience crossing borders and traveling through unfamiliar countries. And we have the flexibility and time. So we signed up.

Friends of Ukraine

In November, we’ll join our first humanitarian aid convoy heading towards Kyiv. We’ll be delivering 4×4 vehicles, generators, and other essential supplies collected by Friends of Ukraine.

Ukraine is preparing for another winter of war. With temperatures dropping well below freezing and energy infrastructure repeatedly targeted, reliable electricity and heating can be difficult to come by.

Generators and power stations keep communication equipment and other essential devices running. Diesel heaters provide warmth where ordinary heating isn’t available. And 4×4 vehicles help transport people and supplies across damaged roads and difficult terrain.

Last winter, the foundation raised over €500,000 and delivered 1,087 generators, 276 power stations, and 14 heaters to Ukraine. This year, its Give Energy, Give Warmth campaign aims to provide 1,000 generators, 1,000 power stations, and 1,000 diesel heaters.

The things I can’t quite imagine

I’ve been reading more stories about Ukraine lately. Some of them stay with me long after I’ve finished reading. I recommend ‘Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns’ by the Ukranian writer Artem Chapeye. A book about the war in which the human side of things doesn’t get lost. About what it does to you when you suddenly find yourself in a country at war. What kind of life choices you’ll have to make.

I keep wondering what it does to a person to live with the possibility of an attack every day. Whether you eventually stop reacting to the air raid alerts. Whether you can still sleep through the night. Whether fear or resilience becomes something you learn to carry around while buying groceries, going to work, or making dinner. The people in Ukraine haven’t had the luxury of choosing whether this war becomes part of their lives.

I’m also curious about the people we’ll meet. Their stories about the last few years. I can’t even imagine what they must’ve been through.

Will you help us bring warmth to Ukraine?

Alongside volunteering as drivers, we’ve started a fundraiser to help Friends of Ukraine purchase more 4×4 vehicles, generators, diesel heaters, and other supplies. The more money we raise, the more equipment the foundation can send to Ukraine before and during the winter.

The foundation’s initiators cover their own organizational costs, and we pay our own travel expenses. That means 100% of the donations goes towards aid supplies for Ukraine.

If you’d like to help, you can contribute through our fundraiser. Every amount makes a difference, and sharing the campaign with friends or family helps too.

I hope the people defending our freedom at the front lines will know that there are people hundreds of kilometres away who haven’t forgotten about them. Especially now, after almost five years of war.

I don’t know yet what this journey will bring. Or how we’ll feel driving back across the Ukrainian border, towards a country where an air raid siren is something we only hear on the news. But I imagine that crossing will feel different from all the borders we’ve crossed before.

We’ll keep you updated.

💙💛