A personal experience got things rolling:

On the evening of February 23, 2022, we sat with our Ukrainian business partners in a restaurant in Dresden to celebrate the successful start of a new project.

When we said goodbye the next morning, however, we knew that nothing would come of it, there was war in Ukraine. We spontaneously offered our guests to help them and their families escape from the war zone. But they said: No, we stay. We must defend our homeland. But you can help us with that. Procure the supplies we need most urgently and do it quickly and unbureaucratically.

A few days later, the first multi-page list of requirements arrived by e-mail, a compilation of material and equipment requests from hospitals, charities and municipal institutions. Nothing on the list was easy to get – we had feared that. alto start with, we did not understand the medical terms. Luckily, our company’s team of doctors promised us quick help and took over the procurement of the medical supplies.

Now it was a matter of purchasing the required items as quickly as possible. We privately paid for the first lot of items. A donation account was hastily set up at the local bank. An email appeal for help to colleagues asked them for support in the form of monetary donations.

So, during the first week of the Ukraine invasion we began to amass things that we had never heard of before. The last packages arrived in Radebeul on Sunday morning (March 3, 2022 (Sunday morning was the sixth of March)). The delivery lists were completed, sent to Ivano-Frankivsk for translation, printed out on return and the packages were prepared for customs. At around 3:00 p.m., the first delivery left by mini-van towards Ukraine. Behind the Polish border, the handover took place to a confidant of our Ukrainian partner, who brought the cargo to the Ukrainian border. — This is how our private initiative “Direct Aid Ukraine” started off.