Author: Care4Ukraine

  • The Weekly Medication Route

    The Weekly Medication Route

    A field update from Hryhorii (Gregory) and Alyssa

    Once a week, Alyssa and I collect medications from centralized clinics and medical NGOs operating in Ukraine and deliver them to people living in rural communities.

    The clinics and medical organizations manage the medications, determine where they are needed, and dispense them for the patients they serve. Care4Ukraine helps complete the next part of that work by transporting the medication from those central locations to communities where distance and limited transportation can make access difficult.

    Care4Ukraine volunteers bringing a refrigerated medication cooler into a rural clinic
    Battery-operated refrigerated coolers help protect temperature-sensitive medications during transport between clinics and rural communities.

    Cooperation Makes the Work Possible

    This kind of cooperation is a common and essential part of our work. No single organization can meet every need on its own. Clinics bring medical knowledge and direct relationships with patients. Medical NGOs help manage supplies and coordinate care. Local contacts understand their communities and the changing conditions. Care4Ukraine secures and organizes transportation, equipment, volunteers, and the ability to reach smaller or more remote locations.

    When groups share information, resources, and responsibilities, together we can help many times more people than we could if each organization operated in its own bubble. It is not always the most visible part of humanitarian work, but it is one of the reasons assistance reaches the right people more consistently.

    The medications on our route support people living with many different conditions and across every age group. The largest group we serve is age 55 and older. For many patients, staying on schedule is critical, especially when a missed delivery could interrupt an established course of treatment.

    A healthcare worker providing medical care to a child accompanied by her mother in Ukraine
    Reliable access to medical care matters most when distance and transportation make regular clinic visits difficult.

    Quiet, Practical Delivery

    Because the risks along these routes are real, Alyssa and I keep the deliveries as discreet as possible. We travel in smaller, nondescript vehicles and avoid drawing unnecessary attention. The medications are carried in battery-operated refrigerated coolers donated by a hospital group in the Chicago, Illinois area. These coolers help maintain the required temperature for sensitive medications during the trip from the central clinic to the rural delivery point.

    The coolers were donated in 2023 and have continued to function reliably through regular use. They are a good example of how one practical donation can remain useful for years: equipment provided by a medical partner in the United States is now supporting Ukrainian clinics, aid organizations, volunteer drivers, and patients week after week.

    Most delivery days are quiet and methodical. We check the coolers and their batteries, load the medication into an ordinary vehicle, follow the planned route, and complete the handoff. Then we prepare to do it again the following week.

    This work belongs to everyone in that chain. We are grateful to the clinics and medical NGOs that manage the medications, the local partners who coordinate needs, the medical group that donated the coolers, and every person who helps these deliveries reach rural Ukraine.

    — Hryhorii (Gregory)

  • From European Supermarkets to Families in Ukraine

    From European Supermarkets to Families in Ukraine

    A significant portion of the food and basic household supplies distributed by Care4Ukraine begins not in a warehouse or through a large international aid program, but in ordinary supermarkets and distribution systems across Central Europe.

    Large grocery chains throughout Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and other European countries routinely have food that can no longer be sold through their normal retail channels. Sometimes a product is approaching its best-before date. Sometimes packaging has changed, seasonal merchandise is being removed, inventory has been overstocked, or a particular item simply has not sold as expected. The food may have lost its commercial value while remaining perfectly suitable for consumption.

    Rather than allowing these products to become waste, many European retailers work with food banks, charitable organizations, churches, community organizations, and other nonprofit groups to redistribute them. European food-waste policy specifically encourages safe, edible surplus food to be redirected for human consumption whenever possible.

    This is a substantial system. Biedronka, for example, reports that it has donated unsold food since 2016 and works with roughly 140 charitable organizations. In 2024 alone, the company reported redistributing more than 10,000 tonnes of food through its stores. Kaufland works with the Federation of Polish Food Banks, Caritas Polska, and other charitable organizations, providing food that can no longer be sold but remains fit for consumption. Kaufland operates a similar program through food banks in the Czech Republic. ALDI has long used comparable arrangements with food banks and local charities in Poland, Germany, and other European countries.

    Volunteer sorting packaged food into boxes for Care4Ukraine distribution

    How Care4Ukraine Uses the Network

    Care4Ukraine participates in this broader redistribution network through charitable relationships and local sources. We receive quantities of non-perishable food, dry goods, basic hygiene products, and other useful supplies that might otherwise have been removed from normal commercial circulation. These goods are sorted, checked, stored, and incorporated into the supplies we accumulate for distribution in Ukraine.

    For us, this is particularly valuable because much of what we need is not specialized humanitarian equipment. It is ordinary food and household material: pasta, rice, cereal, canned goods, flour, cooking staples, packaged foods, soap, toothpaste, hygiene products, and other everyday necessities.

    Acquiring these products through European surplus and charitable-distribution systems allows limited donated funds to be reserved for items that must be purchased, as well as transportation, fuel, storage, generators, medical supplies, and other expenses.

    People organizing boxes of food and household supplies beside a delivery van in winter

    Building Inventory for Winter

    It also explains why Care4Ukraine builds inventories gradually. We take advantage of supplies when they become available, sort and consolidate them, and move them east as transportation and conditions permit. During the summer and early autumn, much of this material is accumulated specifically with winter in mind.

    What might represent excess inventory to a supermarket in Poland, the Czech Republic, or Germany can become several weeks of basic food and household supplies for dozens of families in Ukraine. The system reduces waste on one end and puts usable goods to work where they are genuinely needed on the other.

    Sources and further reading

    Retail food-redistribution background and figures: Biedronka — Przeciwdziałanie marnowaniu żywności; Biedronka 2024 Sustainability Report; Kaufland Polska — Ratowanie żywności; and ALDI SÜD — Food Waste.

  • First Bell Under Air-Raid Sirens

    First Bell Under Air-Raid Sirens

    September 1 is First Bell in Ukraine—the traditional beginning of the school year, when children bring flowers for their teachers and the youngest pupils enter their first classroom.

    This year, the ceremony in Kyiv was interrupted almost as soon as it began. Air-raid sirens followed overnight ballistic missile strikes, and children who had arrived dressed for photographs were moved into shelters. It was a brief moment that captured a much larger reality: for many Ukrainian children, school has not felt normal for years.

    Children and an adult continue schoolwork during wartime disruptions in Ukraine.
    Students continue learning despite air-raid alerts and interrupted routines.

    Across the country, schools are working with whatever combination of classrooms, shelters, remote lessons and electricity is available. A lesson may begin in a classroom and finish underground. When the power fails, teachers return to chalkboards and textbooks; children rely on charged phones and power banks to remain connected.

    The pressure is especially severe in rural, eastern and northeastern communities. Internet service is less dependable, transport is harder, and families often have fewer alternatives when a school, clinic or road is disrupted. Winter adds another layer of difficulty as schools and homes need fuel, generators, warm supplies and dependable backup power.

    An adult leads activities with children in a protected shelter space in Sumy, Ukraine.
    A protected space in Sumy gives children room to learn, play and spend time together.

    Keeping learning possible

    Care4Ukraine works with local volunteers, teachers and community organizations to help families maintain ordinary life under extraordinary conditions. Our support can include notebooks and classroom materials, power equipment, firewood and other practical supplies that keep children learning and communities functioning.

    Two children study and complete schoolwork at home in Ukraine.
    When classrooms are inaccessible, children continue their lessons wherever they can.

    First Bell is a hopeful tradition. The children who went to school despite the sirens deserve the chance to continue learning, building friendships and feeling part of a community.

    Help support students and families
  • Preparing Communities for a Harder Winter

    Preparing Communities for a Harder Winter

    The drone war over Ukraine is changing. Long-range attacks increasingly arrive in repeated daytime waves, keeping air-raid alerts active for hours and forcing communities to pause ordinary work again and again.

    Long alerts can stop activity across a city. Warehouses close, deliveries wait, and workers cannot safely travel or unload essential supplies. Even when a strike lands elsewhere, the disruption spreads through the roads, storage facilities and transport systems people depend on.

    A large warehouse fire disrupts transport and supply routes in Ukraine.
    Damage and prolonged alerts can interrupt the roads, warehouses and deliveries communities depend on.

    In eastern and northeastern Ukraine, the effects are especially difficult. Roads may become dangerous, power is unreliable, and damaged infrastructure can affect water pumps, refrigeration, communications and local clinics.

    War is not only the moment of an explosion. It is also the uncertainty before it and the practical aftermath: a family without a safe home, a village waiting for medicine, or an older resident trying to manage damage with limited help.

    The damaged interior of a home after an attack in Ukraine.
    Damage to homes and infrastructure creates urgent repair needs before winter.

    Preparing before winter arrives

    Care4Ukraine is preparing reserves of food, medical items, repair materials and power equipment across several northeastern locations. Distributing supplies among trusted local contacts helps communities respond when a road, warehouse or delivery route is interrupted.

    An older man sits among rubble outside a damaged building in Ukraine.
    Families and older residents face the practical aftermath of attacks long after the alert ends.

    Moving supplies before winter arrives gives volunteers more options when weather and security conditions become harder. Practical preparation now can help keep heat, food, medical support and communication available later.

    Help communities prepare for winter