An Ocean Grove woman has flown out to Ukraine to help aid the local people.
Grace McKenzie, 20, left Australia early this month to provide an essential service to the people of Ukraine through her role with the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Christian training program.
Ms McKenzie volunteered as a van driver with Dutch family friend Ron van Dijen, who introduced her to the project he has been involved in with four other people.
The group donates items that include tents, blankets, and urgent medical supplies like stretchers, wheelchairs and medicine from Elburg in The Netherlands to the regions of Ternopil via Lviv.
Ms McKenzie grew up in Wallington and Ocean Grove and said she wanted to return to Ukraine in November to bring more supplies for front-line soldiers, hospitals, and the community.
“It is both a rewarding but very moving, and at times distressing, experience to meet the men, women and children living in such harrowing circumstances over such a long time,” she said.
“When all they want is to be left alone to live a normal life in their own country.”
YWAM is a worldwide program that has been helping the people of Ukraine by transporting donated goods since March last year.
The group drives borrowed supply vans with volunteers once or twice per month to the stricken region in Ukraine.
Sometimes, they will also transport refugees, mainly women and children, on the return journey to the refugee shelters in The Netherlands.
The YWAM group has also set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the support efforts. To donate, visit gofund.me/3de98c7c (the page is in Dutch, so the button to donate is called ‘doneren’).
