On a cold morning in April, a cargo van overflowing with about 2,500 pounds of humanitarian aid crossed the Polish border into Ukraine.
The two-person team operating the van consisted of a “navigator” and a driver.
Ian Russell, a formerly homeless UK man who has set up a Go Fund Me site for future Ukrainian aid, was the navigator.
Bob Dutcher, a South Bay native and former software executive, was in the driver’s seat.
Over the course of 10 days they would deliver over 5,000 pounds of food, bedding, toys, clothing, hygiene items and medical supplies to the frontline cities of Sumy and Kramatorsk, among other locations.
Lifesaving and life-changing deliveries like this do not happen without the support and dedication of multiple charitable organizations, including several that have Bay Area connections.
Bob is an active member of the Los Gatos Kiwanis club, which supports a wide range of children’s causes, including the recently completed 45th Annual Kiwanis Special Games, Turn-Around Scholarships and Children’s Hospital of Northern California.
“Kiwanis of Los Gatos really showed me the value of giving back to the community and how even one person can make a big difference,” Dutcher said.
A Czech Republic-based charity and Stary Sambor Ukraine—run by Jan Kubaty—provided the cargo van, customs documentation for the aid and thousands of pounds of humanitarian supplies.
Over the course of three days, Bob and Ian shuttled the cargo from the Czech Republic and Poland to a warehouse in western Ukraine. A total of 40% of this aid was provided by Agnieszka Szyluk, a volunteer known as “Our Lady of Krakow,” which was passed off to volunteers in Ukraine that transported and distributed the aid to Kramatorsk (a small frontline city in the Donbass region).
The remaining aid was transported and distributed by Russell and Dutcher to Sumy, a city of over 250,000 people located 15-20 miles from the front line between Russia and Ukraine.
Sumy’s city center had just been attacked days earlier by two Russian ballistic missiles that killed at least 34 people, wounding over a hundred people, including women and children.
“The people in Sumy and Ukraine in general were amazing given the daily challenges and risks that they face,” Dutcher said. “They were so kind and went out of their way to make sure that Ian and I were taken care of and kept as safe as possible.”
On the way to Sumy, Russell and Dutcher distributed smaller quantities of aid outside Lviv, Kyiv, and a small town in eastern Ukraine.
In Sumy, over 2,000 pounds of stuff was offloaded.
“The aid we delivered was very important,” Dutcher said. “But, I think the fact that an American and a Brit came to Sumy to help was also important to the Ukrainian’s, because it showed them that they were not alone in their fight for survival.”
