A fundraising campaign for Ukrainians in Heerlen has been such a great success that the campaign has already had to be stopped. “There are now so many things that we can no longer process them.”
The Polish Jola Criens, who lives in Heerlen, started the campaign last Friday, after she heard all kinds of stories from Ukrainian refugees in Poland. “My aim was to get a truck full of goods there, the eighth truck with 30 pallets of stuff each has already left,” she says on Thursday afternoon in the shed on Breukerweg in Heerlen. There are now tens of thousands of articles that are sorted and packed by dozens of volunteers.
Staff
The items come from all over the Netherlands and help comes from all sides. “Companies are offering trucks, drivers are coming in, it’s really gotten a bit out of hand, but maybe luckily.” That is why Jola insists not to bring any more clothes, because there are enough. There are even wedding dresses and bikinis on offer, something that really doesn’t help people. “We mainly need products such as milk and diapers, really the basic necessities of life.”
border area
The trucks take the items to the border area between Poland and Ukraine, where many refugees are located. Collection will continue until Friday afternoon, after which a (temporary) stop will follow. Jola doesn’t know how it will go on either. However, her phone is red hot and the messages are pouring in via social media. “And that’s heartwarming.”
Veterans
In Kerkrade it is also all hands on deck. The Uniformed Persons Center Parkstad Foundation, a meeting place and shelter for veterans in Kerkrade, is preparing to receive refugees from Ukraine. “After a while they are accommodated in host families,” says chairman Piet Heuts of the foundation.