Pickup4Ukraine

For over 600 days now, Ukraine has been defending its country, its people and its culture against the Russian attack. The Pickup4Ukraine initiative is helping Ukrainians to defend themselves in a personal, direct and practical way.

The Ukrainian defenders depend on sufficient and reliable transportation for people, equipment and medical evacuation. Civilian hospitals and doctors in or near combat zones are dependent on inadequate supply chains and often lack the most basic medical supplies. While governments and large charities are transporting large amounts of supplies to Ukraine, there are still many niches and small gaps that are covered by grass roots organizations. Pickup4Ukraine works in direct connection with the end users – fast, documented, but without overhead. The donations are used 100 percent for the vehicles and materials.

In their presentation, they talk about their voluntary work, their impressions on the ground in Ukraine and their exchanges with families, soldiers, lawyers and psychologists in particular. On six self-financed trips to cities such as Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, they have personally handed over a total of ten pickups, VW buses and other vehicles to contact persons in the Ukrainian army. They are all in use at the front. The vehicles were each fully loaded, in particular with donated medical supplies, which a Ukrainian charity organization in Kyiv then distributes to hospitals near the front.

Michael Sylvester and Dr. Annette Ehrnsperger are colleagues at a large IT company south of Heidelberg. Together with schoolmates, friends and colleagues, they launched the Pickup4Ukraine initiative in early 2023. More information about their activities can be found at pickup4ukraine.org.