Ukraine – an Essay

The first few weeks after a disaster occurs are the weeks when relief organizations hit the ground with energy and determination. Over the following months these organizations tend to pull back (funding runs out, energies fade, new disasters happen.) In my opinion, the heroic humanitarian organizations are those that stay, long after the press have left and the world’s attention has been diverted. In the countries that GEM serve we stay for the long haul.

One day after the invasion Global Empowerment Mission arrived as the first international organization on the Medyka border. I arrived a few weeks later, my first of many trips, to volunteer, to raise funds and to write about what I saw.  

Global Empowerment Mission are extremely careful and cautious when planning their distributions of aid. Especially to the frontline regions. It’s all timed, super-fast in and out, in armored unidentified vehicles, bullet proof vests, helmets, and with military support. But even then, risk lurks heavily all around. On one mission an FPV drone had exploded too close causing chaos, sending shrapnel everywhere, including into Vitaly, one of the GEM Team leaders, whom I now consider a close friend. War, I guess, does that, fast tracks friendships.  I always think of my Ukrainian GEM friends on a Sunday. Vitaly taking his ice plunges, Olga preparing for the next baby, Mykolai editing images, Andriy back in the gym…the team’s one day off from the relentless humanitarian work they do.  Despite the brutality of war, these proud and spirited people keep living their life.

My second trip took me to Kyiv. By now GEM was fully immersed. They had acquired a vast warehouse and were delivering aid at a dramatic pace. It became apparent many people did not want to leave the country, despite the danger, destruction, despair. I heard this myself when visiting evacuee camps “We don’t want to leave. Our brothers, fathers & lovers are fighting. We want to be here.”

Michael Capponi GEM’s Founder took me to visit Bucha where the mass murder of civilians took place during that first fight for occupation. It had only been freshly liberated the smell of death was everywhere. Putin had placed his rotten finger on the hearts of these people and their city. Michael decided that GEM was going to rebuild Bucha as a sign of hope.

Hope, I realize, is a crucial ingredient during war.

I have headed deep into the East several times since, right to where we could hear missiles overhead and feel tremors under our feet. We wore bullet proof vests and helmets which felt very unjust as we spent time with people who were completely unarmed and unprotected. We drove enormous distances, following the 18-wheeler trucks carrying food, generators, clothing, blankets, battery packs, torches. Sometimes it was too dangerous to bring the freight trucks close to the border, so the aid would be off loaded into sprinter vans that could get in more discreetly. We slept each night in a different location. No power only darkness, often woken by a missile warning we’d close our eyes & pray. It is hard to balance the reality that life is both so terrible and so beautiful.

Even in the ghost towns there were people. Mainly elderly, those who could not or would not leave. In the cities hundreds. In the countryside handfuls. Everyone was desperate but everyone was grateful. We would stay in ‘hotels’- a different place every night. In darkness. No power. Putin had made sure of that. Some nights silence. Most nights sirens. Ukrainians in these remote places would burn the pallets and boxes the aid was delivered in, just to stay warm. Their spirit was still strong. “We will never be Russian.”

A week after arriving on my very first trip, I called Domino.  We had travelled across the country one peaceful side to the other where war raged, and people hid. On hearing her voice, I broke down. I could hear her repeatedly saying “It’s going to be OK Mama.” But it wasn’t OK. Not then, not now. War is disgraceful. 

Safe to say God is everywhere in Ukraine. The people believe, and the people pray. Churches and faith stand tall in this rubble of war, gold domes glint, and the answer to the question “what can we bring you, what do you need?” is always “we need God to bring us peace.

“India Hicks is a British designer, entrepreneur, author, and mother of five. She was born in London. Her father was famed interior decorator David Hicks, and her mother is Lady Pamela Hicks, whose father was the last Viceroy of India, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

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