My name is Sylwia.

I'm originally from Poland and have lived in Northern Ireland for almost 20 years. and am fortunate enough to run a business, and bring my family up here after growing up in Poland while it was part of the Soviet Union.

Seeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine like most others has filled me with horror and fear for the poor Ukrainian citizens who have been directly affected by the war on them for absolutlely no reason.

Within a few days of the Russian invasion taking place I decided to do what I could in Northern Ireland and put a post out on Facebook letting people know that I would be prepared to accept whatever donations people wanted to give at my Flower shop in Kilkeel and I would coordinate with others in order to get the donated aid over to Poland some way or another.

The response has been phenomenal so far. The donations came in so fast that they took over my shop and fortunately I have a large shed at home that I was able to use as a staging point in order to firstly sort aid (hygiene, medical, clothing, children, adult etc) before it was transferred to Milosz Stopka in Mallusk who like me has decided to do what he can in order to help with aid. The value of the goods that have been donated has blown us all away. We have easily £500,000+ worth of goods given to us in order to give to the Ukrainan people.

However, with this comes an issue we didn't consider to begin with. The transport of these donations from Northern Ireland to Poland and Ukraine. The journey is over 3000 miles return and the cost of sending a full lorry there and back including ferry costs over £3000 per lorry. At present we have aid donated which would fill 10+ lorries and we need to raise funds in order to transport the goods there which is the reason for this Just Giving page.

We are all independent people, working together, putting our lives on hold, not taking admin fees, management costs or anything else from any donations given to us. 100% of what is donated is going to fund the cost of transporting the generously donated aid to Ukraine and Poland.

Everyday brings its own new problems and challenges. Donating goods is the first part of the equation. Getting it there is the 2nd part of the equation and distributing is the 3rd part. We have part 1 and part 3 covered with the donations and connections in Poland. Part 2 is the area we need help with, so appeal to you to donate whatever you can in order to help these people, should it be money, lorries, boat tickets, slots, fuel etc. Anything in order to get it there as it won't help them in a warehouse in Belfast.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this fund-rasing effort and if we can all help a little, it'll add up to a lot.

Best wishes

Sylwia