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By The SOGO Team
With the terrible events happening abroad at this very moment, SOGO (like so many others) wanted to do something to help. This spurred Karl Howkins, our MD, to put together a Go Fund Me page to donate directly to the British Red Cross - which continues to do amazing work across the globe.
In particular, this hit very close to home for Iryna, our Service Delivery Manager, whose mother was in Ukraine at the start of the conflict. The fantastic news is that she managed to get the visa approved a few days before the trip began, so her mother is now safe here in the UK.
Seeing how this had impacted Iryna, Karl spoke to a number of friends who also had personal stories from people they know that are being directly impacted by this conflict. It became clear that there was more that we could do to help get aid where it was needed - including to places that are otherwise struggling to get supplies. Karl was able to get in contact directly with members of the police force of the city of Chelm, who were working hard to bring supplies together for refugees and people still in Ukraine. This prompted the SOGO Team to see what else could be done to help out - including gathering supplies to take over.
We are all shocked by what’s happening in Ukraine. It’s an unimaginable humanitarian crisis and we felt compelled to do all we could to help
No sooner had Karl posted about SOGOs plans, than the donations started to come in - both in supplies and money. We were, and continue to be, completely humbled by the vast outpourings of charity from so many different people and businesses. In fact, so many donations came in that we needed to move from taking 2 vans to taking 3, all fully loaded with supplies!
After 2 days of travelling through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, the team made their way into Poland and toward Chelm where they were met by representatives of the police authority. It was great to be able to deliver the supplies directly, and to hear where they would be going - including an Orphanage and a Hospital within Ukraine.
SOGO would like to thank all who helped and donated to this cause, your help has been amazing and we continue to Stand With Ukraine.
If you'd like to donate, then please do so. It doesn't need to be via our Go Fund Me Page, you can go directly to the British Red Cross too. There are even a lot of local collection points for donations too, and whatever you can afford to donate will be more than welcome.
British Red Cross - Ukraine Appeal
You can also find out more on how you can help here:
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