An idea became a non-profit organization

On Thursday, February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. A shock wave ran through our country and most people stood or sat in front of their televisions in disbelief and stunned. So on Sunday, February 27th, I sat with my friend Guido Kröger on the market in Siegburg in bright sunshine and we pondered the injustice and the unimaginable in Ukraine. It quickly became clear to us that we wanted to help. "Let's donate" was the first thought. Then we thought of the first pictures of refugees.... "let's help directly" was the second thought. After another coffee, we got going... "We're going there"..When?? "immediately". Thought - done. That same day we started collecting donations and organized an overnight stay through Guido's relatives near Krakow. A press release went out on the same day.
2 days later the time had come... The Sharan was so full that we had to leave our cooler in Siegburg. Every inch was stuffed with relief supplies, especially medicine and canned food. After a good 14 hours we were with Guido's relatives in Krakow, who kindly gave us shelter for one night. We didn't get much sleep that night, we were too nervous about what was to come. The next day we went on to Medyka, the border crossing in the south of Poland. We had found out on the internet that there was a refugee hub here and we wanted to go there. There was chaos in Medyka, everything was being set up and many people from all over Europe started to help there together. We found the SSF there, that's Doctors Without Borders from Israel. An absolutely expert team who very gratefully accepted our first donations. This all happened on the Polish side. After that we spent 2-3 hours gathering information to prepare further tours. We learned what the neutral zone is, how to get in there, how to take refugees, where, etc.
We were able to provide a trip to Germany for three refugees. When we took them over, we saw the misery of the first Ukrainian refugees. They were waiting, totally exhausted, in a former shopping center for a ride to the West. At this point it was clear... WE will be back.
Already on the way back (the press release became a newspaper article) my phone was ringing off the hook. Guido had to drive the longest distance because I had to manage incoming calls and donations.
The first donations in kind were delivered to our home and there were signs of a huge wave of donations that would keep us busy for weeks to come.
Gunther Maassen