Building membrane manufacturer ITP has teamed up with Thirsk-based aid and fundraising initiative Yorkshire to Ukraine, to organise essential items to be transported to Eastern Europe by Yorkshire-based haulier, Brian Yeardley Logistics.
ITP donated £3,500 to meet the cost of transportation and is inviting the local community to bring cartons of donated items to its premises on Stillington Road.
Donations can be brought to ITP from Monday to Friday between 8am to 5pm until the end of April. Over the coming weeks, ITP will be taking a series of batches to Marrtree Business Park in Thirsk, where a Yorkshire to Ukraine collection centre has been set up.
ITP’s sponsored lorry will depart from the collection centre and travel to Poland or Bulgaria, where the goods will be offloaded and taken to Ukraine. Donations suitable for transportation include canned and dry foods, baby formula, nappies, baby wipes, towels, bedding and blankets, sleeping bags, camping mats, thermal clothes, torches, batteries, power banks, painkillers, cold remedies, pastilles, Sudocrem, first aid kits, bandages, antiseptic, sanitary products, soaps, shower gels, shampoos and other hygiene products. Non-thermal clothes will also be accepted as donations and sold by Yorkshire to Ukraine, with all proceeds going to refugee aid.
Once the truck arrives in Poland, a firm of solicitors coordinates the distribution of donations which are taken on vans to the border. The vans will then enter Ukraine and return with refugees.
Marc van der Voort, managing director at ITP, said: “We are horrified at the devastation in Ukraine and we wanted to do something to help the people suffering out there. Annie Drew, in our accounts department, has been leading the initiative but the Yorkshire to Ukraine truck is a collective effort, with vital contributions from various organisations.
“We are grateful to Brian Yeardley Logistics and to Andy Walker for providing the Yorkshire to Ukraine collection facility. Our truck will be the sixth articulated lorry to take aid from his centre, which has already collected and dispatched 100 tonnes of aid to date.”
>>Read more about how the industry is reacting to Ukraine here.
