1/4 Yana and Gerard at the generators.
Gerard Gielen from Breda has had a few special days. Together with three friends he drove to Lviv in Ukraine to deliver a load of generators. Much of the city is without power. “They were so grateful to us, it was very emotional.”
Gerard, Fred Kramer, Ruud Benard and Tom Rops started the long drive back to the Netherlands at seven o’clock on Friday morning. “We were escorted to the border by the police and Ukrainians,” says Gerard as he enters Poland. “Thanks to a letter of thanks from the Ministry of Defense, we were given priority at the border. There was a waiting time of about six hours, so that was nice,” he says.
The idea of bringing generators to the war-torn country was born last summer. When Gerard read that power plants were being bombed, he decided he wanted to do something. “My good friend Fred has a generator, so we thought if we bring two or three, we’ll be fine.”
Gerard is a lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) and told Ukrainian student Yana Kyrylyuk about his plan. “Then the story suddenly took a completely different turn. She was so happy that we went that we started a fundraising campaign.” A total of 14,000 euros was raised. “Ukrainian students have been handing out flyers at parties. Many students and a number of companies have donated money.”
“It’s touching how much help we’ve received.”
The Breda employment agency Ik Blink Groep has provided the men with two buses and pays for the petrol. The four men left immediately after Christmas. “It took us two days. On the way we slept with the parents of Mattheus, a Polish student at the BUas. It is touching how much help we received.”
Gerard says that the last kilometers were the hardest. “We knew in advance that crossing the border between Poland and Ukraine would be difficult. After a few hours we finally got through it. Some people really wait there for days.”
Once they arrived in Lviv, the group was met by student Yana and her father. “She had already gone to her parents a week earlier. We unloaded all generators at her family’s and they are distributed from there. It was a nice reception. Everyone was so moved.”
“A bomb hit a house 2 kilometers from where we slept.”
The generators go to, among others, the army. “The soldiers really need it. With one generator they can provide about a kilometer of trench with electricity.” Streets in Lviv can also be illuminated with the generators. “All the streets in the center of Lviv are full of those things, you only hear the bubbling of generators in the street.”
Gerard says that after a pleasant evening with the family, they were suddenly thrown back to reality. “We woke up from a loud bang. It later turned out that a bomb had hit a house 2 kilometers from where we slept. Then you realize that you are in a war zone.”
Friday morning the men are back in the car. They expect to arrive in Breda on Saturday afternoon. All in all, Gerard looks back on a special few days. “It was truly a life-changing experience.”
