Serve the City has always strived to help people in need. When it became clear that the situation in Ukraine was quickly becoming a humanitarian crisis, we knew that we could not sit by and watch.
As you may know, Serve the City is a global movement of volunteers, active in over 50 cities around the world. One of these cities is Kraków. As people were seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, Serve the City Poland quickly became overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who needed help, working with local shelters and centres to welcome refugees, give them comfort and distribute essential items.
So, the team there reached out to the STC network for help. Serve the City Poland provided a list of supplies they were desperately lacking. This ranged from medicine and first aid supplies to nappies and blankets, and much more! And Serve the City community in Brussels responded to their call. With the support of our partner UPS, we have delivered 500 boxes with essential items to the team in Kraków, where our volunteers on the field will be able to disseminate to the people fleeing Ukraine who need it the most.
But our collection did not only had an impact on Serve the City Poland’s work. They had partnered with other humanitarian organisations in Ukraine, and some of boxes made it into Kyiv!
At the same time, thousands of Ukrainians were starting to arrive in Belgium. After assessing the situation in the registration office it quickly became clear that our teams of volunteers could make a huge difference in the early morning. Many people spent the entire night in line, just to have some certainty that they would be able to register the next day, and could really do with something warm to drink as they waited for the registration office to open. So, the Solidarity Breakfast team was mobilised and provided essential support and comfort to all those waiting.
To everyone who has supported these two projects, THANK YOU. Without your time and dedication none of this would have been possible. Seeing the strength of our volunteering community has certainly given a lot of people hope.
A special thank you to all the groups who came together to support this cause. Thank you École La Fermette, Toyota, Ecorys, the British School of Brussels, UPS, Cosy St Pierre and many more!
Of course, we cannot forget about the thousands of asylum seekers and homeless people already in our city. Throughout all of this we have continued to run all our other projects that provide essential support and comfort to our friends from all over the world. Would you like to support all refugees in Brussels? Make sure to check out our projects on the app!
