Dear Rotary Friends, The President of the Rotary Club of Lviv, Ukraine spoke to the NYC Rotary Club today and I was invited to join. Please accept this report on happenings live from the devastation.
-Amy Luckiewicz, Wakefield Rotary Club
The Rotary Club of Lviv International
The Lviv RC is made mostly of international business people and they commonly speak English. Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine. Lviv Rotary Club President James Joeriman is American and he was the primary speaker. He is currently sheltering in Warsaw, Poland with his wife and small children. He's working through RC networks to raise money for consumable supplies for the military hospitals. $1.2 million Euros has led to 10 trucks of supplies and they are fully stocked at the moment. Overflow is managed by Lviv defense forces and distributed by priority need to Lviv and the entire country. Supplies are sourced from Poland and Germany; he is unaware of any supply shortages. Lviv Rotary is focused on supplying medical aid, not military equipment.
Lviv Rotary Club (in particular his English-speaking club with international members), are utilizing their international networks to maximize effective response. To his knowledge, the other Lviv Rotary Clubs, Ukranian speaking clubs, are still operating.
James and His Family
For himself, James has the opportunity to return to the United States. He acknowledged it would be a major change for his Ukrainian wife and children. He noted his wife has an immense optimism and wants to return to their home in the Ukraine. He hopes to make a decision within a month, pending the situation. He noted he feels close to home (Lviv, geographically) and he has 6 other members from his club in Poland. His family will only consider other options if it is confirmed they've lost their home. James has not felt he's in immediate danger in Poland which is militarily supported by the US/NATO. He felt the US military presence in Warsaw and feels safe.
Rotary Life in Poland
There are 9 clubs in the Warsaw area. The 6 Polish speaking clubs are working with Ukraine with officers at the border. The other clubs are supporting Rotarians who are opening their personal homes to refugees, but James noted that the Polish government has a pretty stable system to set refugees up with SOME sort of accommodation. The other 3 clubs speak other languages and aid in other ways though transport and refugees, meeting them at the border. He hears German, Russian, Polish, English, Ukrainian and may other languages. Many are able to understand each other, and many default to English.
Refugee Crisis
James knows of a few Rotarian refugees from his club going to London and Barcelona, but most are in Poland or stayed. Given the cultural ties between the Poles and Ukrainians, James felt that this has been a unifying event for the region and has not felt any Polish push-back. He understands the possibility of a future strain, but with shared history Poland and Ukraine are a good match.
Refugee Trauma
James noted that because of the similar languages, food and other traditions, he felt that the culture shock for refugees is minimized. Volunteers are establishing children’s programs similar to a Pre-K program to minimize the trauma.
Help: Monetary Donations
There were Rotarians representing many American clubs on the call. Many Rotary Board of Directors have held many emergency meetings to discuss how best to help via donations or via shipments. Due to very strict Ukrainian banking laws, sending money directly to Rotary Clubs in Ukraine is not suggested. Along with strict daily withdrawal limits, there is a concern about the stability Ukrainian banking system. For those that want the accountability of donations Rotary to Rotary, he recommended sending funds to the Polish club: Rotary Klub Warszawa Wilanów. Here is their information: https://www.facebook.com/warsawwilanowrotaryclub/
Donation records are being kept bi-lingual (Polish and Ukranian) for transparency. PDG Doug Vincent (D7080 Canada) reminded us to not forget that our Rotary Foundation Disaster Relief fund also needs support to share Grant payments to Ukraine aid.
Help: Supplies
James shared a list of needed medications and supplies: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SbSvnkAKUsK7loaTMI9ve1fAcda-hGjavcPi94kdVHs/edit#gid=2001442667
In the Ukraine, MOST medications are over-the-counter which makes it easier to bring medications into the country. For regulated medicines, like morphine, it does require more documents but the local Rotary Clubs are managing all of that. If you wish to arrange for shipment yourselves, the address of their warehouse at the Polish/Ukrainian border is:
Sicz Construction
Rolnicza 4, Przemyśl 37-700 Poland
49,75701°, 22,80497°
In addition, St. George Church is a Ukrainian church in NYC. They are collecting as well and can be reached at (212) 674-1615.
Additional Aid
Rotary Peace Fellows are organizing a team of trauma response experts to be used as feasible and needed. They have 3 major areas of response: trauma response is one of them. James is not currently working with them at this time. Frances Jeffries from D7950 will connect him. He is also unaware of the UN response for refugees and assumes they are more visible at the border.
Rotary and Russia
As an international Rotary Club, James noted his club has different feelings than perhaps other Ukrainian clubs. However, they need to stay in tune with the local community sentiment. In the past, like when working through RYLA, his club has struggled with connecting to Russian Rotary Clubs. Recently, he has seen a petition from his district to exclude Russia from Rotary International. His club agreed to sign for purposes of unity with the Ukrainian locals, but they don't agree with shutting out communications. He feels that was a knee-jerk reaction as people feel betrayed and wounded by Russia. He feels that Rotarians in Russia will be influencers of positive change. Russian Rotarian (who is self-identified as half Ukrainian and living in the US) Anton Dmitrov spoke that he maintains his friendships in Russia. He noted Russian government has passed a law that any aid from Russians to the Ukraine is considered treason. This may be affecting Russian Rotarians willingness to reach out to Ukrainian aid. As Anton said, "Russian is not Putin and Putin is not Russia."
International Women’s Day
Lastly, the following video by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was shared reminding us to love Ukraine.