We will periodically be updating our achievements and milestones here. Starting with our recent year in review:
First I want to thank you all for your generosity in the past year. Project Volya had a rough start, as my wife and I sped across Ukraine on the morning of February 24th last year.
I struggled to understand what this war would mean for our lives. A single burning question wouldn't leave my mind: What could I do to help?
The answer came quickly when I started speaking with soldiers and others being mobilized to fight. The fact was that modern tactical medical supplies were thin on the ground here.
With your help, we continue the work to alleviate this problem.
Our first shipments to Ukraine were small, but things began to pick up speed after we got our first bit of media coverage in the CBC. Not long after that, my future partners Paul and Milos reached out to help.
Together, we raised over $13,000 which we spent on a huge shipment of gear that Milos brought on his second visit to Ukraine in June (his first was in March to help refugees).
Milos and I personally delivered to front line medics in Kharkiv region.
Later in the summer my wife and I made a visit to Canada to meet family and raise money.
Donna and Paul, our family friends who run Forster's Book Garden helped us by generously hosting a speaking event and raising donations for us.
They also put me in touch with Bolton Rotary, who donated a stunning $10,000!
We used that incredible donation, plus a couple of stand-out individual donations, to equip 13 brand-new medics with fully-stocked medical bags.
Handing them out was a little delayed by us surviving a russian missile strike on a training location we were using!
Upon returning to Ukraine, I began to work on providing high-quality training to our Ukrainian friends.
In December, we even went out to Donetsk region where we helped to train part of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, and delivered 45kg of medical supplies to their medics!
We're coming close to $50,000 worth of supplies donated and delivered straight to those who need it.
And we haven't let up! We're in the works to secure a donation that totals more than everything we've raised so far. I look forward to sharing that good news when the time comes!
Thank you all for helping us achieve everything we have until now,
Kevin Leach
Director
Project Volya
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