Rotary Magazin 11/2022

CLUBLEBEN 1990 – ROTARY SUISSE LIECHTENSTEIN – NOVEMBER 2022
RC GENÈVE INTERNATIONAL
THE ROTARY NETWORK IN ACTION FOR UKRAINE
14
Shaken up by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February
2022, two members of the RC Genève International got
into their car on 1 March and drove 2000 km to the North of
Romania.
Whilst travelling, their colleagues back in
Geneva made good use of the Rotary club
finder and managed to identify a Romanian
club close to the border, willing to
engage in a joint project for Ukraine. The
entire Board of the RC Falticeni welcomed
the two travelers from Geneva close to
midnight on 2 March. After bonding
around a few glasses of Palinka, it was
agreed the same evening that the two
clubs would join forces to help Ukrainian
refugees arriving in Romania (at that time
10 000 persons, mostly women and children,
crossed the border every day). It was
also decided to launch a programme inside
Ukraine. To make that work, RC Falticeni
reached out to the president of Rotary Club
Cernivci, a city 50 km from the border. By
associating the club from Cernivci, the
tri-partite Rotary project was complete.
And only three days after the arrival of the
Rotarians from Geneva, a first truck loaded
with baby food, medicine, blankets and
canned food crossed the Ukrainian border.
During the first phase of the war, aid was
also delivered to the Romanian border city
of Siret which had to cope with an enormous
daily influx of refugees. As from
April / May, the joint project focussed on
two areas: on one hand organizing transports
of relief goods to Cernivci, on the
other hand supporting refugees stranded
in the town of Falticeni. The repartition of
tasks between the three clubs was obvious:
RC Cernivci evaluated the most
urgent needs, communicated them to RC
Falticeni and did the distribution upon
reception of trucks. RC Falticeni did the
purchasing of goods on the Romanian side
and organized the transport into Ukraine.
And RC Genève International did the fundraising
and the reporting back to donors.
Between March and September 2022,
a total of six truck transports were organized
to Cernivci. Of those goods transported,
20 – 30 % were distributed to
refugees in the city of Cernivci, and
70 – 80 % were forwarded to cities and
towns near the frontline (especially
Kharkiv), mainly by train. These six truckloads
included in total 23 MT of food
(canned food, oil, flower, rice, pasta),
blankets, clothing for babies and children,
baby food, nappies and medicine. The
support programme for refugees in the
town of Falticeni consists in the delivery of
one hot meal a day for each refugee. This
proved incredibly valuable for women and
children who arrived with nothing but a
rucksack and paper bag in town. RC Falticeni
also organizes game afternoons for
the Ukrainian children and supplies the
families with basic sanitation articles.
Upon initiative of RC Falticeni, a small support
side-project was conducted for the
Rotary Club of Soroca in Moldavia. A special
thank you at this place goes to the
Rotary club Genève Lac. Its members
formed a public collection of relief goods
in the whole of Romandie and then sent a
truck and trailer from Geneva to Cernivci.
Between 15 and 19 September, a delegation
of RC Genève International, led by
president Mineko Mohri, travelled to Falticeni
to honour an invitation to join the
Rotary Falticeni’s annual event. Also invited
were the partners from RC Cernivci and RC
Soroca. The four days were the opportunity
to get to know each other, to recognize
what has been achieved so far, to
discuss the way forward, to foster friendship
and to enjoy many moments of joy
and pleasure in a true Rotarian spirit, beautifully
hosted by the members of the RC
Falticeni.
In terms of fundraising, RC Genève
International was able to raise a total of
188 000 CHF since the beginning of the
invasion, of which 158 000 CHF have been
spent to date. 60 % of funding went into
transports to Ukraine, 25 % were spent on
the local support in Falticeni, and 15 %
were used for the project in Soroca and
minor contributions to support programmes
of refugees in Switzerland. With
a certain donor-fatigue setting in, fundraising
has become increasingly difficult.
This is all the more problematic as a harsh
winter is looming. Winters in Ukraine are
usually cold, with temperatures falling to
minus 20 degrees. Much of the country’s
civil infrastructure has already been
destroyed or is presently destroyed by
targeted rocket attacks, impacting heavily
on the supply and delivery of energy.
To keep going its relief programmes
for Ukraine until March 2023, the RC
Genève International is looking for additional
60 000 francs. Maybe there are
Rotary clubs in Switzerland which haven’t
given to Ukraine, but might wish to do so?
The RC Genève International guarantees
that every Swiss Franc will go at 100 % to
the people in need. No overhead costs, as
all work is done by Rotarians.
K Rot. Thomas Seghezzi / red | A zvg
A delegation of RC Genève International, led by president Mineko Mohri, travelled
to Falticeni to join the RC Falticeni’s annual event. The two clubs joined forces to
help their friends in Ukraine