OUR MISSION

Art Aid Ukraine is an initiative to generate funds through the sale of art in order to supply urgently required medicine to frontline hospitals in Ukraine.



We gratefully receive donations of artwork from established creatives which are offered to the public through events, online auctions and general sale. These include paintings, ceramics, sculpture photography and digital art. All proceeds are used to buy medicines through our affiliated wholesalers in Ukraine and Romania. Everyone connected with organizing Art Aid Ukraine works on a voluntary basis.

We are in direct contact with medics in Ukrainian hospitals in frontline areas including Zaporizhya, Kramatorsk, Drujkivka, Mykolaiv and Dnipro. They provide up to date lists of urgently required medicines which we aim to fulfill as quickly as possible through our trusted volunteer networks in Ukraine and Romania. These include medical supplies including blood transfusion kits, hemostatic bandages, adrenaline, tourniquets, antibiotics, mobility supports and many other drugs and supplies in increasingly isolated areas of Ukraine.

We exist through the goodwill of the artistic community and warmly welcome any Artist or collector who wishes to be part of this initiative to consider donating artwork. We plan to raise future funds through art sales and events. 

The idea is to reach out a long arm and gather medicine to place on the shelves of Ukrainian hospitals. An Artist who contributes their creativity to this project is sharing their gift in a time of tragedy. We hope everyone investing in our artworks may enjoy them even more knowing they have helped people in dire need. 

ABOUT US

In the early days, volunteers like us would receive lists of urgently required medicine from volunteers inside Ukraine. The large NGOs were finding it challenging to reach many of the hospitals and there was a massive demand for medicine from outside Ukraine because supply lines had not been established. We stayed in Suceava, northern Romania. Luckily, the people of Romania were extremely supportive of our efforts. We were able to procure medicine directly from pharmacies at very reasonable prices. A local charity Sange Pentru were doing amazing work in getting medicines into Ukraine and meeting our brave contacts who would drive them to hospitals, many of which were under attack. 

Before leaving Suceava, we established a trusted network with a local pharmaceutical wholesaler who helped a great deal in procurement and distribution. A slight drawback was that we found it fairly difficult to work out the EU equivalents of the medicine being requested by Ukrainian medics and although Tania being a Chemist made this possible, we were concerned that we might supply something unfamiliar which a medic under great stress may misuse. As distribution into Ukraine and production increased we were able to begin additional procurement from Ukrainian pharmaceutical wholesalers. Through this we are able to simplify the distribution and also support the local economy. It also meant supplying medicines that medics were very familiar with.

Throughout this process we have learned a great deal about how effective people can be when they share a combined purpose for acheiving something positive. People that do not know us have trusted us and we have trusted them. We've not lost anything on the way, everything has safely been delivered. This is a testament to the bravery and integrity of the Volunteers we’ve been so fortunate to work with. We often speak about the role Volunteers play in times of crisis - they do amazing work and get so little recognition.

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Art Aid Ukraine launched with a major event in London’s iconic venue the Boiler House. Contributing Artists include Bran Symondson, Dangerous Minds Artists, Tacita Dean, Jean Jullien, Frances Aviva Blane, Valerie Wiffen, Robyn Ward, Roelof Uys, Liz Fritsch, Nicole Farhi, David Leach, Jason Wason, Gregory Tingay, Michel Francois, Karl Owen, Juliya Dan, Barry Martin, Sue Davis, Lennie Lee, Matt Small, Victoria Topping, Lenkiewicz Foundation, Dan Mitchell, Bridget Leaman, Tom Merrifield, Jill Furmanovsky, Soulla Petrou, among 50 other established creatives.

The idea is simple - through the generosity of our creative partners and those that support them, we will reach a long arm out and gather medical supplies from the warehouses of the EU and place them on hospital shelves in Ukraine.

We are Lesia, a Ukrainian-born UK national with 15 years working in fashion industry and Adam, a UK national with 25 years working as a location photographer. Over the past 16 years we have visited family in Ukraine many times and traveled throughout this rich and varied country. As the horrific news broke of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we decided to leave our home in London and head for the Romanian / Ukrainian border to assist Lesia’s family and as many others fleeing the war in any way we could. We were there for 18 days and directly helped 10 women, children and vulnerable people across the border at Siret and into our rented accommodation in Suceava, north Romania. We also purchased and supplied €12,000 of urgently needed medicine to hospitals inside Ukraine.

Our apartment at Suceava. First eight to stay (from right Galya, Melya, Nastya, Tanya, Marta, Anya, Iryna, Yulia + Lesia and Adam.

OUR MISSION



Originally, we planned to help Ukrainian refugees by bringing supplies to the border but we saw that there was already an effective team of charities and volunteers in place. We decided a better use of time and resources would be to try to help people inside Ukraine. There are approximately 3 million refugees who desperately need help but what about the 40 million people still inside the country? Many supply lines are cut off and there is an urgent need for life-saving medicines in Ukrainian hospitals. We met UK-based couple, Kate and Petru, also on the ground in Siret / Suceava. They had established a crowdfund and had already done some great work in establishing supply routes into Mechnikov – a major hospital in Dnipro which was treating many casualties. Being in direct contact with medical staff at Mechnikov meant we could respond very quickly to what they needed. We developed a supply network that transported urgently needed medicines from a local wholesaler across the border very quickly and directly into the hands of staff at the hospital.

Load 4 - medicines, torches and power packs in our car and at Mechnikov Hospital, Dnipro

WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR

We communicated with family, friends and wider contacts and through their generosity we have so far supplied an additional €12,000 value of medicines including pharmaceuticals, wound treatments, equipment and other essential life supporting meds. Aligned with Kate and Petru’s fund this became a significant contribution to keeping the hospital stocked. It was heartening to see photographs of medicines that we had bought in Suceava in the hands of medics a day or two later in Mechnikov, Dnipro.
Our supply line is very much open. We have a credit line with a wholesale supplier in northern Romania who can deliver direct to a committed transport to Ukraine and from there, be picked up by brave volunteers for onward delivery to the hospitals. These efforts are undertaken voluntarily so all the money donated goes towards medicine for Ukraine. In comparison with large NGOs, our efforts are modest but as a smaller, more agile outfit, we can act very swiftly to needs as they come up.

Load 7 - Two carloads of essential medicine picked up from warehouse, packed and dispatched to Ukraine

Load 7 - medicine arriving at hub in Ukraine and then fast-tracked through by staff and volunteers at Mechnikov Hospital Dnipro

OUR SMALL PART IN A HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY

Lesia’s family are from Bucha, just outside Kyiv which has seen some of the worst atrocities of the war so far. Lesia’s sister and her two young daughters were able to escape after the first days of shelling and armed assaults but her parents were among thousands trapped in cellars with minimal supplies and no utilities or communications. This was a harrowing time for the family – we did not know if they were still alive. After two weeks they were able to escape through the brave efforts of Ukrainian volunteers. Sadly, as I write this I think of the millions of Ukranians that are still living through this terror. Arriving at the border we met Petro and Luda with open arms, a generous and dignified couple who had never hurt anybody in their lives and were part of the fabric of their town, now destroyed by the Russian military. We met with journalists and crew from BBC Panorama and World Service who documented our story, in particular the family reunion and accounts that Lesia’s parents brought as civilians living through the terror of the invasion.

The family reunited. Speaking to BBC World Service on 13th March and Lesia's parents, Petro and Luda speaking on 14th March

With Galya and the girls came Tanya and Melya from nearby Irpin, which has also been devastated. They formed a close unit which we will keep together by welcoming Galya and her daughters to our home in London and ensuring that Tanya and Melya are very close so that they have the option to attend school together. We also helped three students, Marta, Yulia Iryna who were in need of logistical support and a place to stay before moving on to Austria and Germany. Our role was also to provide aid and advice to people in various networks and those in need who we met during our time in Suceava and Siret. 

Helping us with a medicine supply run and then walking through the late winter snow

Kate and Petru, some of the boys from Sange Pentru and the brave volunteers in Ukraine