While over a million refugees already entered the European Union from Ukraine, many are still searching for a way to escape the war, searching for security. At the Ukrainian borders and in the country, Médecins sans Frontières and the Red Cross help people providing medical care and food, with donations from all over the world. Here in Luxembourg as well, solidarity continues while the war has dragged on for almost two weeks. On Local Matters this week, we explore how residents in Luxembourg spend their time, money, workforce and open their homes for refugees from Ukraine. For one week now, the collection point for donations at the hospital in Kirchberg has been running. Yesterday, between 200 and 300 persons passed by to donate items.
Even past opening hours, at 6pm, a few people came to drop off diapers and baby food at the delivery entrance behind the hospital Robert Schuman in Kirchberg. The last delivery van that entered the barriers, is filled with folded boxes, a necessary good to pack all these items collected by the association of Ukrainians in Luxembourg “LUkraine”. The donations are piled under the roof behind the hospital, among them baby carriages, food, water, sleeping bags and clothes. The only thing they don’t need right now are more clothes.
“We need food, electronics, headlamps, torches, powerbanks, baby food, powder milk, pampers.”
Michel Schütz is the administrative director of the Hopitaux Robert Schuman in Kirchberg and responsible for organizing the collection of donations and the transport to Poland and Ukraine. “We are quite decent crisis managers”, he says. When LUkraine asked the hospital to provide them with the logistics to manage the transport of goods to Ukraine, Michel’s work description changed completely within a few hours. “We coordinate the collection point, of donations from the general public. We are palletising, sorting and segregating the material, organizing the transports to the destinations in Ukraine. We’ve already collected 130 pallets of goods, close to 100 tons of material.” Many companies and organisations are among the donators, providing money, workforce or even busses and drivers.
If you want to help, check out this link. We collected some useful information and ways to donate.