Our last trip took us to Dnipro. Many things will stick with me from that journey. It was a long trip organised by a Polish guy called Lukasz a fantastic travel companion with the energy and organisation skills of 10 of us. It was a long journey, often involving a lot of grafting. This trips message was that no matter how hard you think your working, Ukrainians will try to do more and no matter how hard your mission is, Ukrainians have it harder.
We took food to really old women living on the 8th floor with no lift or drinking water being bombed on a regular basis. Toys to children with no school also being bombed.
At one stage we adorned full body armour due to the nature of the area and threat. I then felt that it felt wrong to wear the armour while standing next to women and children who had no such protection. So we removed it.
We stood in one elderly ladies garden a few kilometres from the power station in Zaporizhia. It became very real that a loss of even a few kilometres puts people at risk from the Russian Invaders. Something that must weigh heavy on the soldiers at the front.
The faces of the children will stay with me for ever.
The lesson learnt is that if the journey is long and hard, if you are tired and hungry, then remember the are Ukrainians that go through worse every day. We must all do our best and we are stronger together and together we will win. The Ukrainian war is our war, the Ukrainian people are our people.