In the early morning of December 31, the container ship loaded with 15 wheelchairs from our NGO and many relief supplies from all over Japan left the port of Tokyo, and is expected to reach the port of Gdynia, Poland, around February 15, 2025.
This container was arranged by the Embassy of Ukraine. These relief supplies are once delivered to Future for Ukraine (FFU), a medical aid organization in Kiev, which was founded by Ukrainians who fled to Poland after the Russian invasion. The relief supplies include wheelchairs from our NGO.
From there, the wheelchairs will be delivered to the final destination, Misto Dobra (“City of Goodness” in English), which is based in Chernivtsi, a city in western Ukraine.
We did maintenance work on the 15 wheelchairs at an extra work meeting on October 6, 2024. Then, on October 16, we delivered them in a wooden box to a warehouse in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, where relief supplies for Ukraine are to be collected.
Although we were able to bring the 15 units safely into the warehouse, we had to wait until the container was full of relief supplies. Finally, on December 23, two months after our wheelchairs were brought in the warehouse, the container was loaded.
With this process, we were able to make this shipment. It will take two months to reach Poland. Furthermore, the time required from Poland to Kiew and then to Chernivtsi, the final destination, is unpredictable. We can only hope that the wheelchairs will reach the children as soon as possible.
This brings the total number of wheelchairs and other equipment sent to Ukraine to 128. Please click here to see the graph of donation results.
December 31, 2024 Secretariat
== Loading ==
Prior to the departure from the Port of Tokyo, loading was done on December 23 at a warehouse where Ukrainian relief supplies are collected in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.
(How to see the photos)Click on the photos to enlarge them.
(Left) The warehouse containing relief supplies for Ukraine. The supplies are carried out from the shutter on the far right.
(Right) The truck with a 40-foot container arrived at the warehouse on time.
(Left) The warehouse was full of relief supplies sent from all over Japan.
(Right) Supplies were taken out of the warehouse and loaded into the container one by one.
In order to load as many supplies as possible, the goods are pre-packed to a size that matches the dimensions of the container. Their height is just about the height of the container.
(Left) Now it’s the turn of our box of wheelchairs.
(Right) Ms. Lesha is holding a “two-seater baby carriage,” which Valeriya, who attended our October meeting, requested us to send to Ukraine if we had a two-seater baby carriage. We packed it additionally and had it loaded into this container.
The wheelchair box was loaded last. It fit tightly into the opening of the container.
There was still some room above the wheelchair box. Other supplies were pushed in there as well, and it was completed with a loading rate that seemed to be 99%.