Time for Important Updates
The past several weeks have been very busy here at @rocukrainemedrelief, and it is time to bring you some important updates.
Through our GoFundMe campaign, we have raised over $26,000 from our generous donors to support our mission of delivering medications and supplies to hospitals in Ukraine. We have so far sent a total of 7 shipments of 648 lbs (294 kg) of over-the-counter medications, prescription medications, and hospital supplies. This includes our first dedicated shipment of prescription medications ($6,071.50 of mostly anti-seizure meds).
We are currently preparing our next dedicated shipment of prescription medications (an additional $7226.40 from our donors and generous donation from Blessings International of mostly anti-seizure medications). More on this shipment when it is ready to go out, hopefully this weekend!
While working out the logistics of international shipping into an active war zone takes time, we can report that our packages are starting to arrive. At this point, we have chosen a variety of shipping methods to test the speed and success of each, and we are looking now to consolidate these methods moving forward, based on our experience.
The table below summarizes the status of the 7 shipments sent to date:
| Shipment name | Date Sent | Contents | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Laura Price Memorial | 3/27/2022 | OTC meds and supplies | Delivered to N.P. in NJ 3/30/2022, arrived to Kharkiv 04/28/2022 |
| InterVol Aid | 4/03/2022 | Wound care supplies | Delivered to N.P. in NJ 4/6/2022, in transit to Ukraine |
| Volunteers in Poland | 4/04/2022 | OTC meds and supplies | Arrived in Lviv 4/9/2022 |
| Rochester Child Neurology | 4/07/2022 | Prescription medications (AEDs) | Delivered to N.P. in NJ 4/11/2022, in transit to Ukraine |
| RocMaidan Aid | 4/10/2022 | OTC meds and supplies | Arrived to Lviv 4/26/2022, Kharkiv contacts organizing pick up |
| Good Neighbors | 4/16/2022 | OTC + Rx meds and supplies | In transit to Ukraine |
| Springtime Meds | 4/23/2022 | OTC + Rx meds and supplies | In transit to Ukraine |
It should be noted that some of our parcels sent via Nova Poshta’s free humanitarian shipment route may be delivered to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health in Lviv, Ukraine, rather than to specific hospitals in Kharkiv that we had addressed them to, depending on what the situation is in Ukraine at the moment. If this happens, these medications and supplies will still redistributed by the Ministry of Health and will be used by people who need them.
Medical supplies carried by Dr. Neil Scheier arriving at our contact in Warsaw, Poland. These supplies have been subsequently delivered in Lviv, Ukraine on 4/9/2022.
Medicines and hospital supplies shipped by RocMaidan arrived in Lviv on 4/26/2022, and our Kharkiv contacts are organizing pick up.
What’s next?
As this project to deliver medicines and supplies to Ukrainian hospitals developed, it became clear that we would need to achieve official status as a non-profit organization. We are therefore very excited to announce our affiliation as of this week with the Rochester Regional Health Foundations!
This affiliation will allow @rocukrainemedrelief to:
- Collaborate with other organizations (be they non-profit or otherwise) as a non-profit ourselves, rather than as just private citizens.
- Not have to incorporate separately as a 501c3 non-profit, which takes time and expense, both of which are distractions from our mission.
- Provide documents to donors that can be used to report their donation for tax purposes. This was not possible using GoFundMe.
- Be more agile in our logistics of purchasing and shipping medications. GoFundMe had a number of restrictions as to how we could use funds raised.
- Purchase medications through the Rochester General Hospital pharmacy, which increases our flexibility.
- Benefit from the experience of the awesome team at RRH Foundations regarding fundraising and all of the critical administrative details of running a non-profit…allowing us to continue to focus on our mission.
We are very grateful to RRH Foundations for agreeing to this affiliation with them, and look forward to growing and expanding this project with their help and resources!
This affiliation brings an important change in how we fundraise online. As of this post, we will no longer be using GoFundMe, but instead funds will be raised online through our new portal. We have updated all of our DONATE NOW links from this website to reflect this change.
That’s all the updates…for now!
We are still accepting donations!
We are collecting monetary donations to support the purchase of medical supplies and non-controlled substance medications now for Ukrainian hospitals. Go to our fundraising page to contribute.
We are a non-profit organized under the Rochester Regional Health Foundations.
Original artwork by Polina Kolomoiets