Bus service for the solidarity partner city of Verkhniodniprovsk

The Ukrainian solidarity partner city of Verkhniodniprovsk has now received a bus with relief supplies. The vehicle was handed over directly to the local mayor at the Polish-Ukrainian border. The campaign was organised in close cooperation with the Eifellicht e.V. association and other voluntary supporters.

Last Saturday, two teams from Eifellicht e.V. drove a bus with relief supplies to the Polish-Ukrainian border. There it was handed over to the mayor of the town of Verkhniodniprovsk, Gennadii Lebid. Lebid and another driver took the bus to Bocholt's Ukrainian solidarity partner city.

The Eifellicht e.V. association is a non-profit, humanitarian aid organisation from the Eifel (Gerolstein region), which has been providing acute emergency aid since 1991. It concentrates on the direct transport of relief supplies to crisis areas, particularly Ukraine, and supports social projects. The city of Bocholt has already worked with this organisation on previous aid transports.

Bus donation from Lugau in the Ore Mountains

Volunteers loaded the current bus with a total of four and a half tonnes of winter clothing, shoes and bed linen. They travelled all day to Lugau in the Ore Mountains to get the bus donated by Regionalverkehr Erzgebirge GmbH ready for transfer as an aid transport. A volunteer driver from the partner association St. Augustin und Friends hilft e.V. then drove the bus to the Medyka border crossing. He returned to the Polish side on foot and, after an overnight stay in Krakow, travelled back to Germany by train.

Thanks to the helpers

In Verkhniodniprovsk, the bus will be used in future for social and humanitarian purposes as part of the partnership agreement between the city of Bocholt and Solidarity Aid. Despite the extreme winter frost, everything went according to plan. The chairman of the Eifellicht e.V. association, Heinz-Peter Thiel, is delighted: "Our thanks go to all those involved, helpers and supporters. We wish this bus a long life and many missions in the service of the local war-affected population."