Pryvit, hello!

I am Jürgen, an Austrian journalist and friend of Fest Anča based in Bratislava. For the past months, I have been engaging in collecting and shipping aid for people in Ukraine. It all started with the urge to do something to help my friends – Freefilmers, a collective of filmmakers, who managed to escape from Mariupol. Some of them have found a relatively safe place to stay in Zaporizhia, where they are now helping other refugees and people along and beyond the frontline.

It all started in March 2022. Back then I worked as a volunteer in Vyšné Nemecké at the Slovak-Ukrainian border, taking care of thousands of people desperate for refuge. There I also met people who helped me to collect transport humanitarian aid across the border to Uzhhorod. Since then we already managed to collect and ship several van-loads as well as smaller packages of aid based on a grassroots-supply chain, enabling us to send aid material directly where it’s needed. My friends cooperate with a number of initiatives taking care of particularly vulnerable communities (LGBTIQ, Roma, orphans, etc.), who also have special material needs.

Therefore, we try to provide them the things they need. And we’d be glad if you could help us with that.

For our next load you can donate the following items:

Creative materials

– Knitting, sewing, and embroidery kits
– Felt-tip pens
– Lego kits and jigsaw puzzles
– Acrylic paints, gouache and other paints

These things will go to the volunteer centre “Harne Mistse” in Zaporizhia, which offers creative activities for internally displaced people, as well as to young artists from east Ukraine.

Household stuff and tools

– Cutlery (forks, knives, spoons)
– Pots and pans (all types of metal kitchenware, second hand)
– Petrol saw, electric saw
– Electric drill – Angle grinder
– Electric pump (for pumping water from ponds or wells)
– All types of household tools (wrenches, saw, screwdrivers, etc.)
– Metal canisters (for fuel for generators)
– Headlights and regular flashlights

These things will go to the community of Arkhanhelske, a village in Kherson Oblast, where people have lost everything, but they’re planning to come back in the spring to rebuild their houses and gardens. For now there’s no electric supplies in the village, as repair works depend on demining process, but by the beginning of spring we expect the electric supplies to be restored in the village.

Other items, that are still needed

– Regular batteries  (AA, AAA), flashlights, powerbanks (10000 or more)
– Sleeping bags for low temperatures (second hand or new, for leisure or military use)
– Travel mats
– Regular and tactical backpacks (more than 40 l, second hand)
– Thermal clothes and thermal socks
– Second hand laptops, smartphones and tablets
– Generators (second hand or new – diesel or petrol)

These things will go to internally displaced people as well as to members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

You can donate any time in Bratislava – just call or drop me a message. I plan to leave to Ukraine around January 30th 2023. We take care of all necessary logistical steps ourselves, including transport to and shipping within Ukraine. Additionally, we provide frequent documentation about the process of shipping and distribution.

Thanks for your solidarity!

Jürgen Rendl
& Freefilmers

Contact
e-mail: suburbandrifter@gmail.com
mobile: +421 919 246 645 (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal)
fb: https://www.facebook.com/jueang/

Freefilmers is a collective of filmmakers and artists, originally from Mariupol, Ukraine. For the past five years, they have been working with topics of urban transformations in East Ukraine and its multicultural vibes. They have also researched the working-class creativity and industrial past and present of post-socialist cities. Currently the most important sequence on their timeline is not about movies, but about building a network of solidarity and support for Ukrainians who are suffering from and fighting against Russian imperialist aggression.

web: https://help-freefilmers.network/
fb: https://www.facebook.com/Tvorch.Skhid
ig: https://www.instagram.com/freefilmers.ua/