JCI Basel prays for Ukraine

With the JCI Balkan Conference in 2021 in Belgrad the contact to JCI Ukraine was established. With passion and help of our Basel VP Daniel Racz and Training / International Department (Julia Schmid, Karina Steiger-Gonzalez, Stephanie Ritschard, Sathish Kumar, Michael Schiffer) the communication was picked up and the opportunity to be part of JCI Ukraine Inauguration in 2022 given …

… but everything came differently than expected. With the evolving situation between Ukraine and Russia and the aggression of the Russian Government, instead of cheering up and developing projects we were concerned about our friends in the JCI Family in Ukraine.

Quickly JCI Basel members used the opportunity to reach out and offer help. A video to express mental support was recorded and supported by many JCI Members and friends:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UWceyMU7HftZ2wkN_CdGcaA7pwqhEQxO/view?usp=sharing

Along with JCI Switzerland and Zone 2 many many donations for food, hygiene articles and clothes were initiated (https://www.jci.ch/de/Ukraine). All Jaycees, friends and neighbors  collected. In Basel one full transporter was filled till the top. Many thanks for all their contribution to Andre Konrad, Daniel Racz, Daniel Joehle, Desiree Harmuth, Jasmin Widdau, Karin Bjoorn, Laura Glockner, Michael Schiffer, Oliver Kuehnel, Philippe Druell, Ramona Bossard, Thomas Markwirth and many others.

Everything was picked up by Bernhard Scheidegger from JCI Interlaken and brought to Thun. In Thun Claudia Hirsig took care to collect, sort and palletize all donations from JCI Basel Zone 2 as shown in the pictures below.

In total 29 pallets with clothes (kids, women, men), food and beverages, hygiene and outdoor articles like tents, mattresses etc. came together. Fantastic job and collaboration. Special thanks also to Debora Kehrli and Karin Bjoorn who supported Claudia at Thun. All the donations were brought to JCI Schaffhausen. From there they will be brought to the Ukrainian border to support the refugees

However – the contribution didn’t stop there. In addition 730 CHF were donated for good purpose with Ukraine bows at JCI National Forum 2022 in Kreuzlingen.

We can all be very proud of such a commitment for a good purpose! Well done JCI!