A Kilkenny man who has made the journey to Poland with supplies for Ukrainian refugees has praised the response there to the crisis.
Jim Kavanagh of Chernobyl Children’s International Project says he’s never seen anything like what’s happening there at the moment.
Jim has undertaken runs to eastern Europe regularly with supplies for children in the orphanages there but this time has brought substantial quantities of humanitarian aid over to the Polish border.
He’s told The Way It Is that that while it’s a difficult situation there, the efforts to help the Ukrainians are very well organised.
Jim described how a former supermarket is being used as a hub with up to a thousand people sleeping alongside each other while volunteers take delivery of aid into the store:
“Hugely impressed with how it was unloaded. The number of people at the loading bays, taking the stuff in, segregating it to keep track of what they’re getting”
He admitted that ideally conditions could be better but he said “they are doing their very best”
Jim has also praised the local response following the call for donations in Kilkenny and Carlow saying without that “we wouldn’t be here at all”
